Weekly News Round-Up: April 17th, 2009
>>April 15th
The Press Association: Breakthrough in superbug fight
Queen’s University Belfast may have made a breakthrough discovery in superbug’s natural resistance to disinfectants.
Many types of bacteria, such as MRSA, exist in colonies that adhere to the surfaces of materials.
The colonies often form coatings, known as biofilms, that protect them from antiseptics, disinfectants, and antibiotics.
Assistant director at Quill [Queen's University Ionic Liquid Laboratories (Quill)] Mr Earle added: “We have shown that, when pitted against the ionic liquids (salts) we developed and tested, biofilms offer little or no protection to MRSA, or to seven other infectious micro-organisms.”
>>April 16th
‘We’ve cut MRSA rate to zero’ – city hospital
A hospital in Ireland adopts Scandanavian anti-HAI, which proves dramatically effective.
The Mater Private Hospital in Dublin has cut its MRSA infection rate to zero due to the introduction of a new Scandinavian hygienic programme.
The ‘Search and Destroy’ scheme has been implemented over the past few years and there were zero recorded MRSA-related infections in the hospital in 2008.
…
Ms Higgins said that MRSA needs to be tackled by a combination of actions and that this particular technique involves swabbing certain high-risk patients for the infection at the time of admission to hospital.
A representative said that patients with MRSA, as well as those who have a high risk of infection, are isolated from other patients
Superbug payments under spotlight
Investigative news program highlights the millions of pounds paid out in the UK to claims involving HAI:
Millions of pounds were paid out in patient compensation claims involving allegations about hospital superbugs in the past five years, Channel 4 News online has found.
The payout figures, obtained from the NHS under freedom of information (FoI) laws, reveal the number of settlements made to victims when MRSA or C. diff allegations were included as part of their overall claim for compensation for injury.
…
According to the figures, obtained from the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA), which defends compensation claims for health authorities, £4,000,462 was paid out to 44 claimants who included MRSA allegations as part of their overall claim in 2005, £1,964,617 to 32 claimants in 2006, £4,964,679 to 63 claimants in 2007, and £1,493,410 to 27 claimants last year.
Tags: litigation, mrsa, strategies, studies
