Image: (No, they’re not grapes.) Staphylococcus Aureus Bacteria – Vancomycin (Antibiotic) Resistant Strain Found in Many Hospitals. (Image Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Matthew Arduino)
I encountered this story by Beth Swarecki late one evening:
“………Some very scary microbes live in hospitals. They’re the place to be if you’re a nasty germ – convince your host to bring you to a hospital, and you may get a chance to hop a ride on a piece of equipment, or somebody’s unwashed hands, and then – bonus! – have access to a ton of people with compromised immune systems. Hospitals are also a sort of professional conference for the aspiring superbug, exposing germs to antimicrobials and introducing them to buddies who may be willing to share a resistance gene or two.Aseptic technique and hand washing are standard practice, but drug-resistant superbugs are still a crisis in health care………”
It really makes one think twice about that next trip to the hospital.
Read more in: “Meeting Your Hospital Roommates, One Q-tip at a Time | Public Health.”
Reference:
Swarecki, Beth. “Meeting Your Hospital Roommates, One Q-Tip at a Time.” PLOS (Public Library of Science). February 5, 2013. Website. http://blogs.plos.org/publichealth/2013/02/05/meeting-your-hospital-roommates-one-q-tip-at-a-time/. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
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Yikes!!! Scary article! I knew that hospitals can be death traps, but it is nice to see that this article confirms my suspicions.
This is one reason why I think it is often a good idea to leave the hospital once you are on the mend. The sequelae of a nosocomial (hospital-acquired)infection may be worse than the initial medical problem.