U.S. infection-related deaths preventable over five years: CDC

“Even if a hospital is following recommended infection-control practices, that doesn’t protect them from bringing in resistant germs from other facilities, including nurse homes”, said John Jernigan, director of the CDC’s Office of Health Associated Infections Prevention Research and Evaluation.

A report from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that various nursing homes and hospitals in the US try hard to control transmitting of risky infections but they lack coordination among themselves and rarely report to each other if a patient with an antibiotic-resistant bacteria is being transferred from one institution to another.

During the next five years, with investments, CDC’s efforts to combat C. difficile infections and antibiotic resistance under the National Strategy to Combat Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, in collaboration with other federal partners, will enhance national capabilities for antibiotic stewardship, outbreak surveillance, and antibiotic resistance prevention.

Talking about the need of improvement in coordination among health authorities, CDC Director Tom Frieden said, ” Antibiotic-resistant infections in health care settings are a growing threat in the United States, killing thousands and thousands of people each year.

The infections, such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile, known as C. diff, essentially hop rides with patients, even those who are not showing any symptoms, as they move between hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities, according to separate studies conducted by researchers at UC Irvine, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Utah.

In the United States, two million superbug-related illnesses crop up every year and at least 23,000 related deaths are on record, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. With better coordination, potentially deadly infections could be reduced by 70 percent and 37,000 lives saved over five years, the CDC says. Patients carrying resistant bugs can be placed in private rooms, health care workers can take additional precautions to prevent the spread of germs, and more caution can be used with antibiotics.

It is a scary scenario, germs that no longer respond to drugs designed to kill them. This bug is resistant to all kinds of antibiotics and easily kills patients as it affects the body’s bloodstream. “If you’re one of those people who has an antibiotic-resistant infection, there has to be a way to communicate that at an institutional level and not a provider level”.

The coauthors said such coordination could be implemented in a variety of ways, but called on state and local health departments to facilitate coordination between healthcare facilities, writing that they were uniquely suited to lead the approach.

Dr. Eric Howell, immediate past president of the Society of Hospital Medicine, agreed that long-term care facilities are key members of a community’s network and need to be included in efforts to track infections.

The CDC report says this self-reliant approach isn’t working, and patients are getting sick and dying as a result.

“Patients and their families may wonder how they can help stop the spread of infections”, says Michael Bell, M.D., deputy director of CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion.

Connect with public health departments to share data about antibiotic resistance and other HAIs.

Patients should tell their doctor if they’ve been hospitalized in another facility or country in case they have unknowingly come into contact with antibiotic-resitant bacteria, Jernigan said. The FY 2016 budget would also accelerate efforts to improve antibiotic stewardship in health care facilities.