On Wednesday, April 16th the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform will hold a hearing on whether the federal government is doing enough to prevent hospital infections.
The answer is no. "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consistently understate the size of the problem, and their lax guidelines give hospitals an excuse to do too little," says Betsy McCaughey, Ph.D., Chairman of the national Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. (http://www.hospitalinfection.org/)
How many hospital infections? "The CDC claims that 1.7 million people contract infections in U.S. hospitals each year. The truth is many times that number. The proof is in the data," explains McCaughey. 2.4% of all patients have MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) hospital infections. That means 880,000 victims a year from one superbug! Furthermore, MRSA infections account for only 8% of hospital infections. "Imagine the numbers from bacteria of all kinds," says McCaughey.
These new facts discredit the CDC's official number. "It's an irresponsible guesstimate based on a sliver of data from 2002. You can't responsibly deal with a health threat based on six-year-old data," McCaughey contends.
The CDC is failing to set high standards for cleaning and screening - the two methods required to stop the rapid spread of germs from patient to patient.
CDC fails to set cleanliness standards. Hospitals used to routinely test equipment and surfaces for bacterial contamination. The CDC (and the American Hospital Association) advised them to stop, saying it wasn't necessary. The infection toll proves that advice was wrong.