A national priority for disease control...

Over the weekend, I read a really interesting article on MRSA in which the authors note "Our findings suggest that S. aureus and MRSA should be considered a national priority for disease control." and mind you, that the sentence in the article is underlined! [No reference citation here- you can click on the link for that.]

Published in the latest issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, a monthly journal from the Coordinating Center for Infectious Disease- a division of the CDC, it is the latest academic study to shed light on the burgeoning MRSA problem, aside from the [super duper newsmaker] October CDC research article on the extremely high rates of invasive MRSA infections [invasive meaning bloodstream- meaning if you get an infection- you would rather NOT have an invasive one 'cause they're deadly.

Aside from confirming the ridiculous rise of staph infections and the rates of antibiotic resistance, the research indicates that community-associated MRSA is spreading into hospitals- making basic preventative measures in hospitals now more important than ever [ like it wasn't ever important before]

In hospitals, handwashing practices, which have been shown to be the leading intervention for limiting the spread of nosocomial infections, should be improved to meet recommended guidelines (21). Because of the increase in skin and soft tissue infections, standard precautions, including use of gloves, are likely warranted when dealing with all skin and soft tissue infections in outpatient clinics and acute-care facilities. Contact precautions, including use of gowns and gloves, should be implemented for all wound care in acute-care facilities,...

It still blows my mind that we are suggesting to healthcare workers that they should be washing their hands according to recommended guidelines. I think it was about 100 years ago that Semmelweiss discovered that handwashing saves lives- you think the US healthcare workers would accept that fact by now. There's even a treatise on the importance of handwashing on the CDC website. [Anyway...]
But really all of this underscore the fact that infection control programs in the past have missed an essential element, people's behavior. These recommendations, they're really not technical- they're behavioral. And this is what sets our work apart- we focus on the behavioral aspect of MRSA prevention- engaging people to remove the barriers that prevent them from DOING the things they should be doing in order to prevent infections. More about the approach and background can be found in the first post.