C. Diff figures

On Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:40:17 -0000, "Pat Gardiner"
wrote:

Pat's Note: As I suddenly seem to be able to post here without having to
shout above a baying mob of paid "farming" lobbyists drowning me out, let's
try my normal more moderate and balanced tone.

We know these statistics are not too reliable for the reasons admitted, and
indeed we should ask that if now "our figures are now in line with other
developed countries." exactly what was going on here before, that was not
happening elsewhere.

Accepting that the accuracy of the figures was pretty haphazard and is
thought to be getting better, the key date for the explosion of superbugs
including C. diff seems to be 2001. We know superbugs are created by the use
of antibiotics and that there are three significant sectors of use: human
health, pet health and livestock health.

There is nothing that I know of to produce a sudden explosion of superbugs
in human or pet health. There may or may not have been changes in
procedures, but there is no reason to think this could produce more than a
steady increase. The hospitals did not suddenly get more dirty, the patients
did not get sicker or more numerous. If anything, use of antibiotics in
people and possibly pets was being more carefully controlled. The problem
was anticipated and action was being taken.

That leaves animal health, especially pigs and poultry. We KNOW thanks to
PETA's probing that more antibiotics were being used in less pigs. Being
PETA they naturally ascribed it to being a result of illegal use as growth
promoters, when the reality was they were being used legally to try to keep
sick animals alive.

It has got to be the attempts to handle PMWS - Circovirus - PCVAD or any of
the other hundred identities of the new emerging pig diseases all of which
seem related.

Allowing for the propensity of veterinarians worldwide to argue without
referees and publish conflicting material, the dates are exactly right for
the PMWS epidemic that swept East Anglia in 1999 and that mutation being
rexported worldwide in live pig exports.

The point is that the pigs are still sick, and now obviously sick with MRSA
too.

There is no point in cleaning up the hospitals and driving an overstretched
health service to the limits whilst allowing disease back in with every
routine patient and every visitor.

The British government has to test the pigs now and release any information
on poultry too.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7268578.stm


Dramatic rise in C. diff deaths

Tackling hospital infections is a top government priority

The number of deaths linked to hospital bug Clostridium difficile has soared
in England and Wales, figures from the Office of National Statistics show.
Between 2005 and 2006 the number of death certificates which mentioned the
infection rose by 72% to 6,480, most of which were elderly people.
In over half of cases, it was listed as the underlying cause of death.

It is thought that some of the increase may be due to more complete
reporting on death certificates.
Deaths involving C. difficile increased by 77% in men, and 66% in women
between 2005 and 2006.

Since 2006 we have taken significant steps to tackle infections

Professor Brian Duerden, Department of Health

Rates in both sexes have gone up dramatically since 2001, when there were
only 1,200 mentions of the infection on death certificates.
The ONS figures also showed deaths involving MRSA remained roughly the same
between 2005 and 2006 - at around 1,650.

C. difficile usually affects the elderly, and can prove fatal if antibiotic
treatment fails to kill all the spores in the gut, and they take hold again
before the patient's own gut bacteria have had chance to mount a resistance.

It is also very difficult to eradicate from the ward environment, which
means it is easy for other patients to become infected.

Better reporting
Professor Brian Duerden, chief microbiologist at the Department of Health,
said in July 2005 they called for more accurate reporting of infections such
as MRSA and C. difficile on death certificates.

"These statistics from 2006 show that this move has worked and our figures
are now in line with other developed countries.

"Since 2006 we have taken significant steps to tackle infections.

"These include stringent hand-washing guidance for the NHS, a bare below the
elbows dress code, putting matrons back in charge of cleanliness on their
wards and an ongoing deep clean of every ward."

And he added hospital infection rates were now falling.

The Health Protection Agency reported in November 2007 that rates of C.
difficile infection may be levelling off with the number of new cases down
7% to 13,660, while MRSA cases are falling.