MRSA Activists Declare MRSA An Epidemic On World MRSA Day
Main Category: MRSA / Drug ResistanceArticle Date: 07 Oct 2009 - 3:00 PDT
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The Chicago-based non-profit organization, MRSA Survivors Network launched the first inaugural World MRSA Day event on Oct. 1st at Loyola University Chicago with great success. MRSA activists came from across the U.S. to participate and included MRSA survivors and MRSA victim family members, world-renowned epidemiologists, nurses, infection preventionists, hospital association officials and state legislators.
The 2009 theme for World MRSA day was "You can not Change what you do not Acknowledge".
MRSA activists called for world unity and immediate action by world leaders and health organizations to stop the spread of MRSA and to finally declare MRSA an epidemic and pandemic.
"It was very exciting to see such a group of caring and concerned activists come together. Those who had lost loved ones or who were egregiously injured by MRSA courageously told their stories and many in the audience were brought to tears. This had an incredible impact on those who attended this historic event. This is a human rights issue also," states Jeanine Thomas, founder of World MRSA Day.
Jeanine Thomas, with Dr. William Jarvis, President of Jason and Jarvis Associates, a world-renowned MRSA expert and formerly with the CDC, took questions from the media during the international press conference.
The 2009 Sponsors; 3M, StaphAseptic, Cepheid, Pfizer, Clorox, Abbott Molecular and bioMerieux became true MRSA champions and heroes when they stepped up to sponsor this inaugural, historic event to raise MRSA awareness and save lives.
It is the two predominant global activists who are leading the way. Jeanine Thomas, founder of MRSA Survivors Network and Derek Butler, chairman of MRSA Action UK have joined forces to lead the fight, to push for change and demand a proactive approach to controlling MRSA. They are also raising the alarm concerning antimicrobial resistance. International health organizations have stated: "Jeanine Thomas is changing the world of infection control."
Other World MRSA Day events were held at Bedford Hospital NHS in Bedford, England and in Salt Like City, Utah. Other activists will hold events throughout the month of October, World MRSA Awareness Month.
MRSA Survivors Network initiated the U.S. Senate Resolution to designate Oct. 2nd World MRSA Day, and October World MRSA Awareness Month.
Source: MRSA Survivors Network
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MRSA In Australia
posted by Neville J. Angove on 14 Oct 2009 at 5:19 amI was admitted to Bankstown Hospital (NSW, Australia) on January 19th 2007. I spent four weeks in a coma, first from legionella, then from MRSA and MRAB. (I forced my discharge after eight weeks, after two weeks of being told nothing.) In spite of two weeks receiving Vancomycin and IV Timentin, I still had MRSA and MRAB after four weeks.
I was given no other antibiotics, just kept on life support. It took 25 months, but I was finally told this, and told my MRSA was found to be Multi-resistant EMRSA-E15. The medical and bureaucratic culture here is to not report MRSA, nor deaths from it in hospitals, to the extent that about 90% of infections and subsequent deaths are not reported.
What information is made available is presented in such a way that it contains gratuitous errors, name changes, missing data, outright mistakes: the end result is that various reports cannot be compared and an accurate picture of all hospital acquired infections cannot be created.
Some Specific Data On Rubbery MRSA Figures
posted by Neville J. Angove on 14 Oct 2009 at 10:35 amAnalysing MRSA figures is fraught with problems. One paper, published before the culture of cover-up reached its current frenzy, is a good example.
In 2003, authors from the South Australian Department of Human Services published "Surveillance of hospital-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in South Australia (Commun Dis Intell 2003;27 Suppl:S92-A96). These figures were obtained from a no-name, no-blame, no-fault survey over 2001-2002.
The paper examined MRSA burden rates per 10,000 occupied bed days (OBD), MRSA acquistion rates for ICU and non-ICU beds, and morbidity rates of ICU and non-ICU beds. No burden rates for ICU versus non-ICU beds were given, or were the percentages of ICU versus non-ICU OBDs given. Nor were overall morbidity rates given for all cases of MRSA (acquired, or present on admission).
Visual inspection of the averages given shows that about half of those acquiring MRSA in hospital died, regardless of ICU or non-ICU acquisition. Using non-ICU acquisition and morbidity rates, if the figures are used to estimate hospital acquired infection rates and deaths nationwide, then the death rate nationally ranged from between 6,000 to 10,000 per year. Another government publication estimated the total MRSA episode rate at over 17,100 per year.
There is no way to calculate overall burden rates or morbidity rates for MRSA for the hospital, or for Australia.
One interesting problem is that the graphical representation of hospital acquired MRSA rates was also used as the graphical representation of the morbidity rates. This allows some chance for plausible deniablity (perhaps it is the reason that this paper is pone pf the extremely few that could be accessed by the public in 2007 (thank God I took a copy).
In the USA, MRSA acquisition rates overall have increased by more than double since then, while morbidity rates have dropped but still have increased in absolute numbers by 60%
over the 2001-2002 figures.
This month, the Australian Medical Association reported that all Staph aureus rates resulted in about 6,500 infection annually, and only 1,200 deaths (450 from MRSA only). We seem to be short about 9,500 deaths.
You can see, there is some incredible conflict between these figures, and the way they are presented.
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