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C-diff infections surpassing MRSA as hospital threat
Colon bacteria can cause serious intestinal problem
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Sunday, March 21, 2010 4:55 AM
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By Mike Stobbe
Associated Press
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ATLANTA - As one superbug seems to be fading as a threat in hospitals, another is on the rise, a new study suggests.
A dangerous, drug-resistant staph infection called MRSA often is seen as the biggest germ threat to patients in hospitals and other health-care facilities. But infections from Clostridium difficile - known as C-diff - are surpassing MRSA infections, the study of
28 hospitals in the Southeast found.
"I think MRSA is almost ahousehold name. Everybody thinks of MRSA as a serious threat," said Dr. Becky Miller, an infectious-diseases specialist at Duke University Medical Center. She presented the research yesterday in Atlanta, at a medical conference on infection in health-care facilities.
"But C. difficile deserves more attention," she added.
MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, are bacteria that can't be treated with common antibiotics. They can be harmless as they ride on the skin but become deadly once they get in the bloodstream.
They enter through wounds, intravenous lines and other paths.
C-diff, also resistant to some antibiotics, is found in the colon and can cause diarrhea and a more serious intestinal condition known as colitis. It is spread by spores in feces. The spores are difficult to kill with most conventional household cleaners or alcohol-based hand sanitizers, so some of the disinfection measures against MRSA don't work on C-diff.
Deaths from C-diff traditionally have been rare, but a more dangerous form has emerged in the past 10 years. Still, MRSA is generally considered a more-lethal threat, causing an estimated 18,000 U.S. deaths annually.
The study looked at infection rates from community hospitals in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia in 2008 and 2009. It found the rate of hospital-acquired C-diff infections was 25 percent higher than MRSA infections.
/.../
http://www.dispatch.com/live/conten...rpassing-mrsa-as-hospital-threat.html?sid=101
Colon bacteria can cause serious intestinal problem
<!-- begin creation date -->
Sunday, March 21, 2010 4:55 AM
<!-- end creation date -->
By Mike Stobbe
Associated Press
<!-- aligning image and caption-->
ATLANTA - As one superbug seems to be fading as a threat in hospitals, another is on the rise, a new study suggests.
A dangerous, drug-resistant staph infection called MRSA often is seen as the biggest germ threat to patients in hospitals and other health-care facilities. But infections from Clostridium difficile - known as C-diff - are surpassing MRSA infections, the study of
28 hospitals in the Southeast found.
"I think MRSA is almost ahousehold name. Everybody thinks of MRSA as a serious threat," said Dr. Becky Miller, an infectious-diseases specialist at Duke University Medical Center. She presented the research yesterday in Atlanta, at a medical conference on infection in health-care facilities.
"But C. difficile deserves more attention," she added.
MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, are bacteria that can't be treated with common antibiotics. They can be harmless as they ride on the skin but become deadly once they get in the bloodstream.
They enter through wounds, intravenous lines and other paths.
C-diff, also resistant to some antibiotics, is found in the colon and can cause diarrhea and a more serious intestinal condition known as colitis. It is spread by spores in feces. The spores are difficult to kill with most conventional household cleaners or alcohol-based hand sanitizers, so some of the disinfection measures against MRSA don't work on C-diff.
Deaths from C-diff traditionally have been rare, but a more dangerous form has emerged in the past 10 years. Still, MRSA is generally considered a more-lethal threat, causing an estimated 18,000 U.S. deaths annually.
The study looked at infection rates from community hospitals in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia in 2008 and 2009. It found the rate of hospital-acquired C-diff infections was 25 percent higher than MRSA infections.
/.../
http://www.dispatch.com/live/conten...rpassing-mrsa-as-hospital-threat.html?sid=101