We have a significant lack of transparency in the United States and worldwide concerning MRSA. “MRSA must immediately become a top political priority”, Jeanine Thomas, founder of MRSA Survivors Network and World MRSA Day said today.
Methicillin-resistant Staphyloccocus aureus (MRSA), the antibiotic resistant form of Staphylococcus aureus is rampant and an ongoing epidemic in U.S. healthcare facilities, in the community, in livestock and in the environment. Every healthcare facility should be implementing active detection and isolation (ADI) for MRSA along with decontaminating the environment, strict adherence to hand hygiene and prudent use of antibiotics.
In August, Thomas criticized federal and state health officials for ignoring the epidemic, “The ongoing MRSA epidemic has needlessly cost hundreds of thousands of American lives and millions have been infected and colonized.”
She also said the CDC is abdicating the responsibility of reducing infection rates to state health departments and not a federal agency. Healthcare facilities and healthcare workers look to the CDC for guidance, not the other way around.
The CDC’s inaction, lack of leadership and systemic failure for decades to recommend proven methods for prevention of antimicrobial resistant pathogens (ARP) transmission has fueled antimicrobial resistance and put antibiotic use at risk. The Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) CDC’s guidelines for controlling multidrug- resistant organisms (MDRO’s) were confusing and contradictory and left many hospital infection control preventionists puzzled as to what to implement.
World MRSA Day, October 2 and World MRSA Awareness Month, October are annual awareness campaigns to raise awareness to the global ongoing MRSA epidemic.
In the United States, MRSA infection rates are vastly under reported and community-acquired MRSA infection rates are not even being reported. ‘The MRSA Epidemic – A Call to Action’ is this year’s global theme.
My life has been changed and no body forever marked and changed from MRSA. Healthcare professionals at state levels simply don’t know enough about MRSA transmission and complications. After 27 MRSA infections (no, I’m not diabetic), I have had only one doctor that has truly listened to me and helped me. The others don’t realize the huge impact MRSA has on lives.
Stay invemratifo, San Diego, yeah boy!