Report: Hospital staph infections decline
CHICAGO (AP) — A government report says the rate of dangerous staph infections has dropped dramatically in hospital intensive-care units, a rare encouraging sign about a hard-to-treat “superbug.”
The report involving nearly 600 hospitals is the largest to document a long-term decline in the level of IV tube-related infections of MRSA, a deadly drug-resistant staph germ.
The rate of MRSA bloodstream infections connected with intravenous tubes fell almost 50 percent between 1997 and 2007. The decline occurred at most types of intensive-care units that reported these infections to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the study period.
“We may actually be starting to get a toehold on” these dangerous germs, said Dr. Buddy Creech, a Vanderbilt University infectious disease specialist who was not involved in the research. “That’s encouraging.”
In 1997, there were an estimated 43 MRSA infections for every 100,000 intensive-care patients who spent a day hooked up to one of the these IV tubes. By 2007, that number dropped to just 21.