HOSPITAL INFECTIONS MORE SERIOUS AS DRUG-RESISTANT BACTERIA INCREASE
Every year about two million people in the U.S. contract nosocomial or hospital infections — infections contracted during medical care in a hospital or other health facility. These virulent bugs often cause serious illness or death. One study shows that there’s a rise in drug-resistant strains of Acinetobacter, a dangerous bacteria found widely in U.S. hospitals.

Who Is Most at Risk for Acinetobacter?
Patients in hospital intensive care units are the likely targets for Acinetobacter. However the bacteria is also plaguing soldiers returning from Iraq. This hospital infection can lead to severe pneuomonia or bloodstream infections. In some cases, not even the strongest drugs can kill the bacteria.

For the study, which was published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, researchers from the Extending the Cure project analyzed data from 300 American hospitals. They investigated trends in resistance to imipenem, an antibiotic considered a last line of defense.

The results showed that between 1999 and 2006, there was a 300 percent increase in the amount of Acinetobacter cases that were resistant to imipenem. According to Extending the Cure’s principal investigator Ramanan Laxminarayan the findings are particularly troubling because they signal that the bacteria is growing resistant to nearly every drug available.

To help combat this growing problem of drug-resistant bacteria and hospital infection, the researchers recommend more rigorous infection control across the country. They also suggest drug companies provide incentives to develop novel antibiotics to destroy resistant strains of bacteria.

10 WAYS TO STAY SAFE IN HOSPITAL

FOR PATIENTS
1. Eat super-healthy meals before going into hospital, such as lots of green vegetables, fruits, and superfoods such as spirulina and probiotics.
2. Ask hospital staff to disinfect their hands before touching you. Keep alcohol-based hand sanitizers in your room to make it easy for them.
3. Request pre-surgery antibiotics.
4. Ask for hospital tubes to be removed shortly after surgery, or avoid having them when it’s possible.
5. Stay warm to increase your immune cells’ ability to fight hospital infection.
6. Leave hospital as soon as you can to go home.

FOR VISITORS
7. If you are visiting a hospital, consider wearing gloves. Dispose of them the moment you leave the hospital.
8. Try not to touch things unnecessarily.
9. Wash your hands (or use alcohol-based hand sanitizers) immediately before and after leaving the hospital.
10. Don’t visit someone at the hospital if your immune system is already compromised (for instance, you have a cold or HIV). If you must visit, wear a mask and gloves and take all the necessary precautions to avoid getting a hospital infection.

RESOURCES:
Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, 2010;31:196–197. “Increasing Resistance of Acinetobacter Species to Imipenem in United States Hospitals, 1999–2006.” Ramanan Laxminarayan, PhD, MPH; Marc S. Hoffmann, MD; Michael R. Eber, BSE.