Thursday, May 27, 2010
Microbiologic myopia
Today's New York Times has an article on toxigenic E. coli strains that cause severe foodborne illness. While many people are familiar with the H7:O157 strain, there are six other similar strains that have been largely ignored and have escaped regulation. Kudos to the New York Times for putting this story above the fold on the front page. As I read this article, I couldn't help but think how closely this parallels the situation in hospital epidemiology, where laws continue to be passed to test patients for MRSA, while untreatable gram-negative infections are ignored. Cynically, I suspect that as soon as there's a rapid test for KPCs, there will be the sudden discovery of a crisis, and we'll have new laws to test all patients for these organisms.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
OSHA! OSHA! OSHA!
In many parts of the country, as rates of COVID-19 are declining and vaccination coverage is increasing (albeit with substantial variati...
-
In many parts of the country, as rates of COVID-19 are declining and vaccination coverage is increasing (albeit with substantial variati... -
This is a guest post by Jorge Salinas, MD, Hospital Epidemiologist at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. There is virtually no...
-
I’m surprised that we can’t stop arguing about the modes of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, despite the fact that most experts (including our frie...
I saw this article this morning. Kudos for mentioning it in the blog and making the connection to infectious organisms.
ReplyDeleteI guess what gets measured gets done, but until there is an effective way to detect organisms like KPCs, they will continue to be ignored.
By the way, I've been reading this blog pretty regularly and really appreciate the informative content, insight, and the occassional humor. You guys ever thought of doing a "Meet the Bloggers" session at APIC or SHEA? I think you should!