>>Feb 7/09

MRSA’s on the Move
Nurses dealing with the risks when MRSA moves from hospitals to community-based clinics — particularly for patients with diabetes.

“MRSA is not a word we take lightly around here,” said Candy Gauthier, LPN, staff nurse in The William W. Backus Hospital department of endocrinology and metabolism, an offsite clinic based in Norwich, CT. “It’s scary to think that this is not just occurring in the hospital anymore.”

>>Feb 9/09

Next Biotech Opportunity Could be in Hospital-Acquired Infections
Kalorama Information, a medical market business intelligence firm, speculates in their new report that it will be biotech companies who lead the way in combatting HAI.

Hospital acquired infections (HAI) are exacting a significant toll on human life, ranking among the top ten leading causes of death in the United States. With an estimated 5%-10% hospital patients acquiring an infection, about two million cases each year and about 90,000 deaths, there is a huge associated financial burden which a new report from Kalorama Information, “Nosocomial Infections: Market Assessment for Diagnostics and Therapeutics,” estimates at between $4.5 billion and $5.78 billion annually.

…

“HAIs, especially the foreign bugs, are a considerable problem and the healthcare community needs help,” said Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama Information. “Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical industry has practically abandoned developing treatments. It will fall to the biotechnology community, and biotech companies have a market opportunity here that could provide them a major revenue stream.”

>>Feb 12/09

“The war against superbugs”
CBC digs into the “War on Superbugs”:

“A study published in the American Journal of Infection Control in December 2008, found that rates of hospital-acquired infections soared in Canada between 1999 and 2005.

Rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus – known as MRSA — more than doubled in the period from 1999 to 2005, said the study, which was based on a survey of hospitals with 80 or more beds.

There were 5.2 cases of MRSA per 1,000 hospital admissions in 2005, up from two per 1,000 in 1999. There was also an upward trend in C. difficile infections, and the number of hospitals reporting new cases of infection with VRE soared.”

>>Feb 13/09

BioScience Laboratories Approved to Test MRSA on Human Volunteers
In the States, BioScience Laboratories have received approval to begin testing their product’s efficacy against MRSA on human skin.

>>Feb 4/09

GPs urged to cut antibiotic use

Hospitals in Ireland are urged to curb overprescription of antibiotics.  Professor Hilary Humphreys warns that “Antibiotics kill bacteria and not viruses,” with unnecessary use only serving to make antibiotics more resilient and resistant.

“The more frequently antibiotics are used unnecessarily, the more resistant some forms of bacteria become to them.

That in turn leaves doctors increasingly powerless to fight life-threatening infections.”