Nearly 100,000 Die From Hospital Infections in USA
Hospital infections in the USA, how to reduce them
05 Jul 2004
Souce: Medical News Today
In the last 20 years, hospital infections have increased nearly 40 percent in the USA. Nearly 100,000 people die from these infections every year, which is more than those who die from breast cancer, prostate cancer and skin cancer, combined.
Each year, about 2 million Americans develop a potentially fatal infection during a hospital stay. Many of those infections are developing a strong resistance to the antibiotics used to treat them, leaving few effective therapies. Now two new therapies are packing a powerful punch against these infections.
Researchers say some of the infections are more of an inconvenience, but some of them can actually be fatal. Among those potentially fatal infections are staph infections. About 30 percent of us carry a harmless form of it in our noses.
Researchers studied the antibiotic Bactroban when it was rubbed in patients' noses before surgery. The result was a nearly 50-percent reduction in infections among carriers of the bacteria.
Another lethal infection is the pseudomonas, it is the single most fatal organism you can get in a hospital say specialists.
Researchers say they have developed a polymer that, when placed in the intestine, does not disturb the ecosystem of the intestine but just provides a chemical shield.
In mice, it was 100-percent effective, however research is still in the process and one day researchers hope that they might be able to help humans .