Changes needed to stop deadly infections
MARY LOU RATH New York State Senator
As evidenced by several local cases and a recently released study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, there is an alarming increase in hospital based methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus infections. That is why I sponsor legislation that would require surveillance to test admitted patients at hospitals and nursing homes for MRSA.

Surveillance involves a simple swab of incoming patients' nose with a Q-tip to determine who is carrying MRSA. Most patients who are colonized with MRSA will never become infected because they are immune to their own bug, but they can transmit MRSA to others, especially in the hospital where many are susceptible because they are sick.

Once identified, targeted steps can be taken to ensure that these colonized and infected patients do not transmit MRSA in the hospital setting.

For an entire generation, hospitals have emphasized infection precautions such as washing hands and keeping surfaces clean, but few tools have been used to understand where the danger is greatest.

Continual reminders to hospitals' staff insisting they wash their hands and keep all surfaces sterile certainly are part of the solution, but not the entire solution.

In fact, many believe this approach has delayed real progress on MRSA because the shift has not been made to testing for these insidious staph infections. Since 1974, there has been a 30-fold increase in the incidence of MRSA in our hospitals. That's a 3,000 percent increase.

Patients who go into the hospital should have a reasonable expectation that they won't become even more ill. In addition to the patients who become very sick from MRSA staph infections - oftentimes having to remain in the hospital for ten or more days - nationally, MRSA deaths, once a rarity, are approaching 20,000 annually, and this number grows every year.

This alarming trend can be reversed. The MRSA rate in Denmark, where patient protocols similar to those outlined in my bill have been followed for many years, is less than 2 percent - as compared to 65 percent in the United States and rising every year.

The Veterans Administration Hospital in Buffalo is currently following protocols that have reduced MRSA infections by 50 percent in a pilot program at the Pittsburgh, Pa. VA hospital.

My bill calls for an immediate plan of action, and I am working with my colleagues in the Legislature to pass it as soon as possible. I encourage anyone who would like further information to contact my office.