The Super Bugs Around Us

Could a cell phone be infected with a super bug? Well, it depends upon where your cell phone has been. If its been in the hospital it may be full of disease causing bugs that are reaching epidemic proportions and killing thousands. Here is a thought provoking article on the subject of emerging super bugs.      Cell Phones Cause Superbug
Outbreaks In Hospitals
From Patricia Doyle, PhD
9-24-10

 

Hello Jeff - I could not help but notice #4:  Cell Phones Cause Superbug Outbreaks in Hospitals. Interesting. There is a lot more on the website below but I thought the information below is very important to share.   Patty     From TheDailyBeast.com     1. Superbugs Spread the Most in Hospitals     It's true: The hospital is one of the easiest places to get a superbug, as it presents so many potential breeding grounds. Scientific American estimates that nearly 100,000 people die each year from bugs they pick up in health-care facilities, and almost 1.7 million patients contract hospital infections annually, according to the CDC. How does this relate to superbugs? Well, they evolve by becoming resistant to antibiotics, and heavy antibiotic use in hospitals is one of the major factors in their growth. Also, think about how frequently there are open wounds in hospitals, or tubes carrying blood: All are breeding grounds for superbugs. The latest superbug, NDM-1, has a shadowy past with hospitals. British doctors said 14 of the patients found to have the virus had been hospitalized in India or Pakistan recently, mostly for cosmetic surgery. NDM-1 is also resistant to most antibiotics and can easily travel from one bacteria to another-meaning it can travel easily via other bacterial infections.     2. Superbugs Love College Campuses     Ah, college. So many of those first "shared experiences" that are considered the cornerstone of American college life-communal showers, waiting to wash the sheets until returning to mom and dad's, the cafeteria's frequently-used trays, beer pong-are breeding grounds for superbugs. In 2007, nine athletes from Iona College in New York contracted methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, a staph infection commonly associated with hospitals.     3. Superbugs Can Travel in Food     Since superbugs thrive in any living organism, it's only natural to assume they can be carried in food. It's just not something you really want to think about. The same things that have caused superbugs in humans-overuse of antibiotics, unclean instruments, close quarters-are key in their growth in animals. But one of the biggest problems with superbugs in animals is a lack of testing in processed food plants. Recent studies have found the superbug MRSA in retail cuts of pork, chicken, beef and other meats not only in the U.S., but in Europe and Asia as well. And earlier this year, researchers said China's excessive use of antibiotics in its farm production stood to be a major cause of superbug growth in the food chain.     4. Cell Phones Cause Superbug Outbreaks in Hospitals     In 2009, researchers in Turkey found that 95 percent of doctors' and nurses' cell phones had at least one strain of bacteria, and 35 percent had two. So, OK, not all bacteria is not a superbug, right? No, but nearly one in eight of these cell phones were found to harbor MRSA, the rampant superbug found in hospitals. And cell phones can be particularly deadly; not only are they infrequently cleaned, but they are touched by hands, ears, and mouths. Science Daily recommends that everyone undergo strict infection control methods to prevent the spread of superbugs via cell phones, and remember to regularly clean your phone or think about the phone you are borrowing.     5. Gonorrhea Could Be the Next Superbug     When exactly gonorrhea burst onto the scene is not known, and although it's existed for centuries, scientists say it has a fair chance of being the next superbug. The World Health Organization estimates there are 340 million new cases worldwide of all sexually transmitted diseases, including gonorrhea, every year in people among the ages of 15 to 49. What makes gonorrhea dangerous is that it has very few symptoms until the disastrous ones, such as ectopic pregnancy and pelvic inflammatory disease. But this is not the only factor in pushing gonorrhea toward a superbug-also there are very few new drugs available because it is not as deadly an STD as HIV/AIDS or even syphilis. As a result, doctors normally treat gonorrhea that is drug resistant by piling on more antibiotics, causing the bacteria to grow stronger and stronger.     http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/201 0-08-12/superbug-facts-to-know-as-ndm-1-emerges/       Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics Univ of West Indies Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message board at:http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php Also my new website: http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/ Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa Go with God and in Good Health