MRSA - Are the figures right?
- From: "Pat Gardiner" <patgardiner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:04:37 -0000
Pat's Note: Even if the figures are right, it in no way renders the
hypothesis that pigs are an important source of MRSA invalid.
Although accurate figures for the pig industry are almost as hard to get
hold of, we do know that the number of sites housing pigs is diminishing
rapidly.
The industry is losing money and pig keepers due to falling profits. If pigs
were a source, the hospital figures would mirror this decline, let alone a
reduction due to deep cleans and other measures.
Are Britain's pigs as sick with MRSA as those of the near Continent and
Canada. We need to know. It would take a couple of weeks to find out.
The fact that nobody wants to do it, suggests that they are, and nobody
wants the awesome responsibility of taking the blame for doing nothing for
so long.
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iCVp09rmUfLJmHmJsmS4RpsSYyGw
Government accused over MRSA target
23 minutes ago
The Government has been accused of dirty tricks after new details emerged of
how it plans to hit a controversial MRSA target.
The Liberal Democrats and Tories hit out after it emerged the Government was
taking into account reductions in the MRSA rate including the first quarter
of 2008/2009.
In 2004, former health secretary John Reid said the Government would halve
rates of MRSA by the end of March 2008.
The Government confirmed it would use figures from April to June 2008 to
calculate the figure.
According to the Department of Health, the Government will measure whether
the Government has hit the target by looking at figures for April to June
2008. It argues that using data prior to the end of March would measure a
period before the target deadline.
But shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said the Government was moving
the goalposts. He argued it was "no coincidence" that the time frame it had
selected was after hospitals finish their deep clean programme.
He added: "This is yet another example of the Government congratulating
itself while ignoring the detail.
"They have to stop moving the goalposts to dishonestly meet their own
targets. They have got to be honest with patients. MRSA is a serious matter,
so Labour should stop kicking it about like a political football to make it
look like they are doing better than they actually are."
The news comes after figures suggested the number of MRSA and Clostridium
difficile (C diff) infections is falling. There were 1,072 MRSA cases
reported in England during July to September 2007, down by 18% on the
previous quarterly figure of 1,304 cases.
The six-monthly rate of MRSA bloodstream infections was 1.24 cases per
10,000 bed days. This was for the period April to September 2007, and
represents a 21% decrease on the previous six months, when the rate was 1.57
cases. The six-monthly rate was also 30% down on the same period in 2006,
when the rate was 1.77 cases.
--
Regards
Pat Gardiner
www.go-self-sufficient.com
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