Thank you for visiting HAI Focus. This website is updated regularly to provide you with current news and information about healthcare-associated infections and infection prevention. I hope you find the information useful.
Sincerely, Julie Reagan, Founder of HAI Focus
The following message is provided by Evelyn McKnight, the founder and president of HONOReform Foundation.
May 19 is Hepatitis Testing Day, which may seem to be just another health observance. Unfortunately, as someone who contracted hepatitis C as a result of unsafe injection practices, I know the importance and urgency of testing for hepatitis.
Over the past twelve years, there have been over 40 documented outbreaks of bloodborne pathogens in U. S. healthcare settings. More than 125,000 patients have been notified that they needed to be tested for potentially fatal diseases hepatitis C or HIV. Why? A health care provider did not follow injection safety guidelines. Or he or she simply did not know the proper procedures in the first place.
I know it’s hard to believe, but can you imagine the emotional toll, not to mention the financial impact, of being infected with HCV? In my case, I was battling a recurrence of breast cancer when I was diagnosed. With no other risk factors, attention turned to the clinic where I was receiving chemotherapy. Before long, it was discovered that the same syringes were being reused on multiple patients and a community saline bag was being misused. Ninety-nine of us were infected.
With my story, just one of many, in mind, I want to urge anyone who has risk factors for hepatitis to get tested. More and more Americans, particularly Baby Boomers, are becoming affected by this “silent epidemic.” For more information, do an Internet search for “CDC Hepatitis C Information for the Public.” Information on Hepatitis A and B is also included.
To everyone else, I issue this challenge. Become an empowered patient! If you are getting an injection or IV treatment, follow the recommendations of the Safe Injection Practices Coalition (SIPC), and ask, “Will there be one needle, one syringe and only one time?”
Encourage your state or local health department to become involved in the effort to prevent disease outbreaks associated with unsafe infections. SIPC has just released a “State and Local Health Department Toolkit” that offers helpful strategies and practical advice. Health officials can download it from the One & Only Campaign website: http://www.oneandonlycampaign.org/content/one-only-campaign-toolkits.
It seems inconceivable that a patient could, while receiving medical treatment, end up with a deadly disease. But, sadly, it’s happening all over the country. It’s real. It’s recent. It could become your problem. Again, I urge anyone with risk factors for hepatitis to get tested. And everyone who is responsible for giving injections to always follow the proper procedures.
Evelyn McKnight is the founder and president of HONOReform Foundation and the co-author of A Never Event: Exposing the Largest Outbreak of Hepatitis C in American Healthcare History.
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According to a CDC study, the number deaths associated with gastroenteritis (inflammation of the stomach and intestines causing vomiting and diarrhea) more than doubled from 1999 to 2007. The findings, based on data from the National Center for Health Statistics, are to be presented today at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta.
CDC scientists used data from the National Center for Health Statistics to identify gastroenteritis-associated deaths from 1999 to 2007 among all age groups in the United States.
“Gastroenteritis is a major cause of death worldwide,” said lead author Aron Hall, D.V.M., M.S.P.H., of the CDC’s Division of Viral Diseases. “By knowing the causes of gastroenteritis-associated deaths and who’s at risk, we can develop better treatments and help health care providers prevent people from getting sick.”
Over the eight-year study period, gastroenteritis-associated deaths from all causes increased from nearly 7,000 to more than 17,000 per year. Adults over 65 years old accounted for 83 percent of deaths. Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) and norovirus were the most common infectious causes of gastroenteritis-associated deaths.
There was a fivefold increase, from approximately 2,700 to 14,500 deaths per year, for C. difficile, a type of bacteria often associated with health care settings. C difficile, which causes diarrhea, accounted for two-thirds of the deaths. Much of the recent increase in the incidence and mortality of C. difficile is attributed to the emergence and spread of a hypervirulent, resistant strain of C. difficile.
Norovirus was associated with about 800 deaths annually, though there were 50 percent more deaths in years when epidemics were caused by new strains of the virus. Norovirus is highly contagious. It spreads through person-to-person contact and contaminated food, water, and surfaces. People can get norovirus illness throughout the year, but cases peaked between December-February. Norovirus causes more than 20 million illnesses annually, and it is the leading cause of gastroenteritis outbreaks in the United States.
“While C. difficile continues to be the leading contributor to gastroenteritis-associated deaths, this study shows for the first time that norovirus is likely the second leading infectious cause,” said Hall. “Our findings highlight the need for effective measures to prevent, diagnose, and manage gastroenteritis, especially for C. difficile and norovirus among the elderly.”
Click here to read the CDC Press Release.
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A bill currently being considered by the Minnesota Legislature would require hospital financial responsibility for hospital-acquired conditions.
H.F. No. 2345, as introduced in the Minnesota 87th Legislative Session, defines “hospital-acquired condition” as “a medical condition acquired or worsened as a result of an error or omission made by a hospital in connection with the diagnosis, treatment, care, or other service provided by a hospital to a patient.”
Under the legislation, if enacted, hospitals would be liable to the patient for all reasonably necessary corrective medical and hospital service costs that result from a hospital-acquired condition that is created or increased by the hospital. The law would be applicable to hospital-acquired conditions created on or after August 1, 2012.
Click here to read the bill text.
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