Saturday, October 20, 2007
Federal health officials were surprised by the prevalence of a life-threatening, drug-resistant infection that is killing more Americans each year than AIDS. Legislators from Tallahassee to Washington can make it easier to fight the "superbug."
As researchers for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies reported this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, invasive, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is "a major health problem ... no longer confined to intensive care units, acute care hospitals, or any health-care institution." Martin County High School and the Palm Beach County Jail are proof.
On Wednesday, after nine cases of the drug-resistant staph infection were confirmed, Martin County High sent phone messages and letters to all students and parents about the symptoms and how the infection can be spread. The wider notice, at the urging of the health department, came after the school initially alerted only athletes.
The state does not require the health department to be notified of outbreaks. Nor are schools required to notify students and parents of infections, despite the easy spread through direct contact; sharing towels, razors or clothing; or touching a contaminated surface, such as sports equipment. That should change. Also, the state should conduct more frequent inspections of hospitals and release the results quickly. Hospitals are not required to screen patients for the infection, but early isolation would curb its spread.
Some easy practices should be standard in public facilities. After a two-year staph outbreak at the Palm Beach County Jail, a new medical services firm in 2005 saw fewer infections after requiring more hand washing and hotter water for laundry. The health department also inspected the facility unannounced, and required screening for MRSA when inmates arrive.
At that time, the Florida Medical Association had joined hundreds of groups nationwide, including the American Medical Association and the Florida Nurses Association, to urge approval by Congress of the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act. Reintroduced in February as HR 962, the bipartisan bill would ban antibiotics in food products for cows, pigs, chickens and other farm animals. Overuse of antibiotics inflames the drug-resistant strains of staph infections. For this low-ranked Congress to pass it would be a pleasant surprise.Palm Beach Post
