I'm beginning to wonder just how 'sanitary' a hospital or any other medical facility really is.
Medical regulations implement
Aseptic conditions, and yet, how is it that a supposedly
healthy individual can enter a hospital, and then leave sick. Or worse. Possibly die in the hospital while having contracted a dangerous disease?
LINK
Seven or eight patients at Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital have died in an outbreak of 107 cases of the deadly Clostridium difficile (C. difficile)
infection over the past year.
The hospital said yesterday there are six patients in the hospital with active C. difficile now.
The infection causes diarrhea and more serious intestinal conditions such as colitis and is the most common infection in hospitals and long-term care
facilities.
C. difficile has claimed some 2,000 lives in Quebec since 2003 and turns up in hospitals from Toronto to Sault Ste. Marie.
The 107 patients contracted the infection while in Jo Brant
.
[Side Related Note)
I'm at a high-risk of contracting any flu's, colds, et al. I'm a healthy individual, however, because I perform residential cleaning, I'm 'more
suseptible' to pick up whatever germs that may reside in peoples' homes. Chances are, if my customer has come down with the flu, and hasn't warned
me ahead of time, I will most likely get the flu. The unfortunate thing is that I
can't get a flu shot - allergic to certain chemicals in the
shot. Now, I come down with the flu, and the symptoms don't come into play, for a week or two, what are the chances that I'm passing it on to
others unsuspectingly? Probably 100% right?
The Bigger Scale:
Let's take a look at the 'waiting room'. Germs are abounding. They're in the air, on the seats, and coming out of the person beside you - who's
hacking and wheezing like no tomorrow.
I know that hospitals have 'stands' at the entrance door that provide sanitary hand washs, and will provide masks, but how often do the hospital
cleaners come by and wipe down the chairs, tables and other things in the waiting room?
More and more, hospitals are becoming sources of infection. Dr. William Jarvis, chief of investigation and prevention for the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention's Hospital Infections Program, estimates that at least 80,000 patients die each year from infections they acquire after
entering the hospital. That makes hospital infections the nation's fourth most common cause of death, accounting for more mortalities than car
accidents and homicides combined. Jarvis believes that about 5 to 10 percent of patients -- from 1.75 million to 3.5 million people annually --
contract infections while hospitalized, a rate experts estimate has probably increased at least 50 percent in the last decade.
LINK
My brother informed me today of a man contracting the
Super Bug at the hospital down the street from me. The man had apparently been healthy
(he visited his wife who was sick - not from the super bug] and he himself had died from this bug. He was apparently healthy when he went into the
hospital.
Anyone worried about visiting the hospitals?