Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

MRSA survivors say 'superbug' an epidemic

|
|
 
  
Published: March. 16, 2010 at 1:37 AM

CHICAGO, March 16 (UPI) -- A group of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus survivors said they want U.S. health officials to declare MRSA an epidemic.

Jeanine Thomas, founder of MRSA Survivors Network, said more Americans die annually from invasive MRSA infections than from HIV/AIDS, Parkinson's disease, H1N1 flu, homicides, injuries at work and infant mortality. Yet federal public health agencies fail to acknowledge the extent of the "superbug," provide prevention funding or mandate that such evidence-based prevention interventions as active detection through surveillance testing and contact isolation be implemented in U.S. hospitals, Thomas said.

The Veteran's Administration hospital system is a shining example of taking action, using active detection through surveillance testing and contact isolation in intensive care units hospital-wide, and now in its long-term care facilities, Thomas said.

"There is no reason why such an intervention is not mandated at all U.S. healthcare facilities," Thomas said in a statement. "More and more patients are dying of MRSA every day and many patients are left permanently disabled."

Recommended Stories
© 2010 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
High Fashion in Paris 2011: The year in space The best kisses
Additional Health News Stories
1 of 27
Vanessa Hudgens attends the "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" premiere in Los Angeles
View Caption
fark
Buying generic is now just as expensive as buying name brands
Man died while playing video games at internet cafe, but the blank stare and smell of soiled clothing...
Dejected bank robber wearing shorts on his head, not covering his face, leaves without money when...
Photoshop this hall of hams
1-800-GET-THIN: "They cut her liver three places during the surgery and put her in a wheelchair...
This week's Mugshot Roundup features assaults, DUI's, bench warrants and wait........... they arrested...