While U.S. officials continue to urge states and businesses to get ready for an outbreak of serious disease, issuing checklists of preparations, and Congress battles with funding a federal plan before the end of the year, a report has been released that declares that because most U.S. hospitals do not follow good hygiene practices, they could contribute to the spread of influenza during a pandemic.
The report, combined with a Congressional Budget Office report showing a pandemic could cost the U.S. economy $675 billion, just adds to an increasingly grim picture being painted of what a bird flu pandemic would look like in the United States.
The H5N1 avian influenza spreading through poultry in Asia and parts of Europe, including Ukraine, is presently considered one of the worst threats.
To date it has killed 70 people and infected 135, but a few mutations could turn it into a virus that spreads easily and quickly among people.
Many reports have shown that hospitals can be a source for spreading such diseases, with in some cases health care workers failing to follow even basic hygiene practices such as washing their hands after touching any patient or piece of equipment.
In a report from the National Center for Policy Analysis it is predicted that unless hospitals tighten procedures quickly, they could contribute to the spread of H5N1.
The report says that shoddy infection control is poor preparation for flu and poor homeland security as well.
Betsy McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor of New York, heads the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, a group that campaigns about hospital infections, helped write the report.