On National Patient Safety Day, The Committee To Reduce Infection Deaths Calls On The CDC To Make Every Death Count

Main Category: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Also Included In: MRSA / Drug Resistance;  Public Health
Article Date: 25 Jul 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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On Friday, July 25th grieving families and patient advocates across the nation will hold candlelight vigils and gather for moments of silence in memory of loved ones who died from hospital infections. "We share their pain and outrage," says Betsy McCaughey, Ph.D. Chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and a former Lt. Governor of New York State. "The government agency responsible for setting standards in hospitals, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is largely responsible for these deaths."

"The CDC consistently understates the size of the problem, and their lax guidelines give hospitals an excuse to do too little." McCaughey adds.

"The CDC claims that 1.7 million people contract infections in U.S. hospitals each year. The truth is several times that number," explains McCaughey. The proof is in the data.

In 2007, approximately 880,000 patients contracted MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus)in the hospital, according to a study by the Association of Professionals in Infection Control, which was published in the American Journal of Infection Control (December 2007).

880,000 infections from MRSA alone. Imagine the number of infections from bacteria of all kinds. MRSA infections amount to only 8% of all hospital infections, according to a nationwide study released April 6 by Emory University researchers. That figure was confirmed in Congressional testimony by Julie Gerberding, head of the CDC. Clearly, many millions of Americans contract hospital infections from bacteria of all types each year.

These new facts discredit the CDC's guesstimate of 1.7 million hospital infections a year. In fact, the CDC's figure is based on a sliver of 6-year-old data from 2002. How can the CDC be effective in combating hospital infections if it cannot even provide up-to-date data on the size of the problem?

Numbers matter. Health conditions that affect the largest number of people command more research and attention.

Failing to level with the public about the size of the infection problem is only one of the CDC's shortcomings. Their inadequate guidelines are costing patients their lives. On Patient Safety Day, RID calls on the CDC to make every death count.

"When the CDC understates the problem, it adds insult to injury for grieving families," says Maureen Daly, who lost her mother to a hospital infection in New York City in 2004.

Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths
http://www.hospitalinfection.org