Hospital Patients Threatened by Superbugs

Public health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are warning about the spread of antibiotic-resistant superbugs in American hospitals. According to Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, “These are nightmare bacteria that present a triple threat. They’re resistant to nearly all antibiotics. They have high mortality rates, killing half of people with serious infections. And they can spread their resistance to other bacteria.”
He urged health care facilities to adopt a “detect and protect” strategy by testing patients for superbugs, isolating those who are infected and using meticulous hygiene measures to prevent the spread of bacteria to other patients.
To learn more about a successful infection control strategy developed at the Pittsburgh Veterans Affairs Hospital, you may want to listen to our interview with Robert Muder, MD, and a patient who was seriously injured by a hospital-acquired infection that was resistant to treatment.