Scary, infectious SUPERBUG just spread to five more U.S. states, including some in the Midwest

A deadly, hard-to-spot “superbug” yeast is rapidly infiltrating American hospitals. In June 2016, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned clinics about the emergence of a new multidrug-resistant yeast strain called Candida auris. Two months later the first seven cases of a C. auris infection were recorded in the United States. The yeast causes severe illness and has a high mortality rate, especially among high-risk, hospitalized newborns and elderly.

Now, the number of cases in the U.S of the multi-drug resistant yeast has jumped from seven to more than 122. What’s worse, this so-called superbug is resistant to most mainline treatments, killing about 60 percent of those who’ve been infected with the yeast, the Daily Mail Online reported.

Though superbugs usually reference bacteria that have evolved to resist multiple antibiotics and are especially hard to kill, this deadly yeast also appears to have evolved resistance to multiple drugs. The yeast was first identified in Japan in 2009 and has now been found in more than a dozen other countries. In the U.S., the first multidrug-resistant C. auris infections were recorded in New York and New Jersey, which have now spread to five more states (Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Oklahoma).

In the past few weeks, the superbug as stepped it up a notch. As of May 12, 2017, 77 clinical cases of C. auris had been reported to the CDC, with the majority of cases being identified in New York (53 cases). The other states included New Jersey (with 16 cases), Illinois (four), Indiana (one), Maryland (one), Massachusetts (one), and Oklahoma (one). In New York, 17 patients have died after contracting a C. auris infection. State officials, however, said that everyone infected had other illnesses, meaning the fungus was not necessarily the cause of death.

The yeast can survive on surfaces in rooms and on the skin of nurses and patients. The yeast easily spreads between people, even after a treatment with antifungal medications. After screening the close contacts of infected patients, an additional 45 cases, mostly patients on the same ward, with C. auris were isolated, bringing the total to 122 patients who contracted the deadly infection.

According to Dr. Paige Armstrong of CDC, the yeast is acting like a superbug bacteria. It is often difficult to recognize and has been misidentified as other less deadly infections.

A serious, emerging global health threat

With its 122 cases, the infection still appears to be relatively rare in America. Nonetheless, the CDC has labeled it “a serious global health threat” since some strains are resistant to all major classes of antifungal drugs.

For the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published on May 19, 2017, researchers analyzed the first 35 clinical isolates and found that in 86 percent of the samples the yeast was resistant to fluconazole, 43 percent resistant to amphotericin B, and three percent to echinocandins, which are the standard treatment methods for a yeast infection like this.

According to their findings, the yeast mostly spreads in hospitals or among family members. After screening 390 close contacts, the CDC’s report noted that 12 percent were colonized by C. auris. Furthermore, testing of patients’ rooms also recovered C. auris from mattresses, beds, windowsills, chairs, infusion pumps, and countertops, the report noted. However, C. auris was not isolated from rooms after being thoroughly cleaned with a sodium hypochlorite-based disinfectant.

Given its highly infectious character and high mortality rate, health officials decided to sound the alarm. The fast spread of the disease to other states has prompted the CDC to take preventive measures. They updated the guidelines — urging doctors and hospital staff to isolate C. auris sufferers. Follow more news of infectious disease outbreaks at Outbreak.news.

Sources:

DailyMail.co.uk

CDC.gov

CDC.gov

10 babies were infected with a superbug… and the hospital CONCEALED it from the parents and the public

On March 26 of this year, a newborn at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) Medical Center tested positive for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a superbug that cannot be treated with conventional antibiotics. According to hospital officials, the baby has since tested negative. However, it was revealed that the infant was one of 10 babies infected with MRSA between August 2016 and March 2017 while being treated in the neonatal intensive care unit.

All of the infants have been successfully treated and none have died, hospital officials said. John Murray, a hospital spokesman, has insisted that the infection was contained to a single unit and that no new uninfected babies have since been admitted to that ward.

The source of the virus has yet to be identified, reported the DailyMail.co.uk. Although all 220 staff members have undergone preemptive measures to kill any potential MRSA bacteria, the outbreak continues. The most recent MRSA case was detected in March and involved four staff members testing positive for the virus; all four have since tested negative.

Of the outbreak among infants, county officials told the LATimes.com that they did not inform the public because they saw no evidence that the infants being treated the neonatal unit (NICU) of the UCI Medical Center were at higher risk than infants admitted anywhere else. “We do not have evidence that infants admitted to UCI’s NICU are at higher risk than infants admitted elsewhere, so a public notification would not serve to prevent or lower the risk of infection transmission [emphasis added],” stated Murray.

The outbreak only came to light after Marian Hollingsworth, a board member of California’s Healthcare Associated Infection Advisory Committee (HAI-AC), filed a complaint with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).

According to Hollingsworth, she became aware of the outbreak in August after a friend who works in the UCI Medical Center complex informed her about it. “I’m a mom of four. I’d be outraged if no one told me. I think hospitals have a lot to learn yet about infection control, and everyone needs to be on it to help prevent it,” Hollingsworth said.

A state inspector visited the UCI Medical Center to investigate the outbreak on March 20, after Hollingsworth filed her complaint. The investigation was completed on April 3 and, in a letter to Hollingsworth, state officials found that the hospital had not broken any state or federal laws. In a statement, Hollingsworth noted that it appeared as though the UCI Medical Center and government officials were attempting to handle the outbreak internally.

Lisa McGiffert, Director of the Consumers Union Safe Patient Project, has commented that these kinds of outbreaks were oftentimes uncovered by the media or discussed in medical journals, but many were kept secret. McGiffer continued by saying that the public had the right to know about all outbreaks, as the disclosure would result in hospitals working harder to prevent any future infection incidents.

This wouldn’t be the first time hospital officials and staff failed to inform patients or the public about what was truly going on behind closed doors. In the same state, doctors attempted to hide the body of a baby who died after receiving eight vaccinations almost all at the same time. There have even been claims that the government has been helping hospitals cover up cases of superbug infections, because “Government authorities are clueless about how many infections there are, or how many patients are dying,” wrote Betsy McCaugher for RealClearPolitics.com. (Related: Read more on hospital- and healthcare-related news by visiting Medicine.news)

It’s like McGiffert told the LATimes.com: “Patients have a right to know.”

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk
ABCNews.go.com
LATimes.com
BeckerHospitalReview.com
RealClearPolitics.com

California hospital fined after taking out a woman’s ovaries by accident

A hospital in California is being sued for the accidental removal of a woman’s ovaries. The Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, Calif., has been fined $47,450 by health officials, reported Catherine Ho of SFGate.com.

Doctors at Sequoia were supposed to remove the patient’s appendix, fallopian tubes, and uterus during surgery in February 2016; however, due to a mistake in the hospital’s surgical schedule, the patient’s ovaries were taken out. The patient, according to the report by the California Department of Public Health, will require lifelong estrogen replacement therapy as a result. The report did not mention the patient’s name and age, nor did it mention if the ovaries were removed instead of, or in addition to, the appendix, fallopian tubes, and uterus.

“The care and safety of our patients and staff are the highest priority at Dignity Health Sequoia Hospital and we take this matter very seriously. After self-reporting this event to the CDPH, we fully cooperated during their investigation and immediately took steps to ensure this never happens again, including revising protocols and staff re-education,” said a spokeswoman for Dignity Health, a Northern California health system.

In an announcement by the California Department of Public Health, the agency has stated the fine against Sequoia Hospital is one of 17 civil penalties filed against 14 California hospitals. All of the penalties, which total $1.1 million all in all, concerned incidents that have caused serious injury or death. (Related: Brain Surgeons Can’t Tell Left from Right: Third Operating Mistake on Wrong Side of Patient’s Head)

Out of the 14 hospitals, four of them, including Sequoia Hospital, are in the San Francisco Bay Area. Two of the hospitals, St. Luke’s Campus and Kaiser Foundation Hospital and California Pacific Medical Center, are located in San Francisco. The other, Queen of the Valley Medical Center, is located in Napa.

St. Luke’s has been fined $47,452 after a patient felt dizzy and fell out of her bed while under the care of the hospital staff. The patient was not put through the prescribed hourly neurological checks and died despite undergoing emergency brain surgery.

Kaiser Foundation Hospital has been fined $147,000 for two separate incidents in 2015 and 2016 that resulted in the deaths of the patients. In one, a patient receiving dialysis suffered massive blood loss and cardiac arrest after his line disconnected from his catheter. In another, a patient died after their tracheostomy—a surgical procedure to create an airway—was mishandled and a tracheostomy tube cuff valve had been left inflated. A spokeswoman for Kaiser has said: “We sincerely regret that these incidents occurred and extend our sympathy to the families involved. In response to these incidents, and to ensure such situations never occur again, we immediately investigated their root cause, evaluated our processes and implemented systemic improvements and training for our nurses, physicians, and staff.”

Queen of the Valley has been fined $225,000 for three incidents in 2013, in which hospital staff failed to properly track patients’ symptoms and dispense correct treatment. Two patients died while the third patient was left in a vegetative state.

The California Department of Public Health, states Rhea Mahbubani of NBCBBayArea.com, is allowed to issue up to $75,000 in fines for the first administrative penalty of a hospital. The second penalty can go up to $100,000, and the third up to $125,000, as well as all subsequent violations within a three-year period. Hospitals that have been penalized have 10 days to appeal, and are required to issue a plan of correction.

You can read up on more medicine-related and healthcare news by visiting Medicine.news today.
Sources include: 
SFGate.com
NBCBayArea.com

Patients found to recover more quickly once they remove hospital gowns

A British campaign called the PJ Paralysis Initiative has been launched by staff members of the Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) National Health System (NHS) Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom. Its goal is to encourage patients in hospitals to dress in their own clothes as soon as they feel able to move around. This simple, costless action could benefit millions of people around the globe, helping them recover faster and free up much-needed bed space.

According to Anne-Marie Riley, deputy chief nurse of operations at NUH, patients who stay in their pajamas for longer than they need have a higher risk of infection, mobility loss, fitness and strength reduction, and longer hospital stays. The initiative was born after a discussion by the NUH staff about what they could do to value patient time.

Get dressed and speed up recovery

Wearing pajamas or the bottom-flashing hospital gowns reinforces the sick role in many patients, preventing a speedy recovery. While the patients and their conditions need to be taken into consideration, for many it’s a matter of helping them to get up, get dressed, and get moving.

Anne-Marie Riley added that staff members are being encouraged to use their professional judgment and skills to identify patients who are ready to get up and about, adding that early evidence suggested that these people were discharged from the hospital much sooner.

Helping patients to get on their feet not only helps them recover, but it also changes how staff and family members view them. Furthermore, it can also make the hospital more efficient by improving patient flow, timely discharges, the patient’s length of stay, and it creates more time to take care of other patients.

The idea of the campaign is that by bringing them closer to their normal routine, patients will gain the confidence they need to get better and return home. Next to speeding up the recovery and shortening hospital stay, keeping them upright and active also reduces the loss of mobility and hospital associated problems such as pressure sores or secondary infections. (RELATED: Read more about prevention strategies at Prevention.news.)

An occupational therapist and physiotherapist explained that right after people were dressed the confidence boost was remarkable, improving the recovery rate dramatically. Some NUH staff members, which run Queen’s Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital, have even created a clothes bank for patients who don’t have anything to wear.

Ten days of bed-rest equals ten years of muscle aging

According to the NHS health experts, elderly patients over 80-years old that remain in bed for ten days will experience ten years of muscle aging. To get back to full strength, it will take twice as long and a lot of dedication. The NHS also noted that one week of bed rest equates to ten percent loss in strength. For older people who have issues climbing stairs, getting out of bed, or standing up to go to the bathroom, a loss of 10 percent can make a huge difference in their ability to resume their activities without the help of others.

With staff dressing in pajamas or hospital gowns to draw attention to the campaign, word of the initiative — dubbed #EndPJParalysis on Twitter — is spreading like wildfire on social media.

As reported by Natural Blaze, the U.S. should also jump on the #EndPJParalysis bandwagon to create more beds and a bit more dignity for their patients. Since there are so many overworked nurses working in understaffed departments, every improvement in the health care system is more than welcome to take some of the daily stress away and improve the honor, power, and dignity of patients. (Related: Find more news on the process of healing at Healing.news.)

Sources:

NaturalBlaze.com

England.NHS.uk

NottinghamPost.com

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