Six organisms (MERS, Ebola, measles, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, clostridium difficile, and CRE) are spread in hospitals and preventable but many times, we still don’t have a prevention, cure, or vaccine according to CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden discussing key health issues at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.
MERS is very concerning since the fatality rate may be as high as 30 percent and it has been found that the overwhelming majority of MERS cases in recent months or in the past six to twelve months have been associated with hospitals. The good news is that the healthcare community knows how to protect healthcare workers and others using infection control measures.
Dr. Frieden said, “Antibiotic resistance could affect any of us. In fact, two million Americans get resistant infections each year with 23,000 dying from infections each year. Antimicrobal resistance is a big problem that is getting worse and costs at least $20 billion a year in healthcare costs.
To stop drug resistance, we need to provide better detection, control, and prevention, along with coming up with more innovative solutions. In dealing with detection, we need more real-time systems to find out what is really happening in the U.S.
Dr Frieden announced that for the first time, CDC will launch a system that will allow any hospital in the country to track electronically and automatically all of the antibiotics dispensed in hospitals and at the same time, track all the antibiotic resistance patterns of patients who have infections. This will enable doctors with the right information at the right time to make correct decisions to help patients receive antibiotics that are neither too broad nor too narrow.
Launching this system to enable better detection is the first step in controlling drug resistant organisms. It will make it possible to improve prescribing practices, to identify outbreaks sooner, and figure out if our outbreak control measures are working.
The second step is for hospitals not to try to control infections alone. They need to intersect with nursing homes, outpatient providers, and other facilities in their communities. In addition, public health departments need to play a major role along with state health departments to reverse drug resistance.
The third step is prevention. It is essential to look at antibiotics carefully and look at the data from the hospitals, in terms of resistance patterns and prescribing patterns on a regular basis. It has been proven that team-based care, using checklists, and obtaining feedback are all simple management tools that need to be applied systematically to prevent drug resistance.
Dr Frieden mentioned that the President’s budget for 2015 includes a five year initiative for $30 million a year that would enable five regional centers of excellence to be built to help doctors understand whether a patient is resistant to an infection in real-time and determine whether there are outbreaks and how to stop them. This would enable pharmaceutical companies and others to come up with more rapid diagnostics or better ways to treat infections.
For more information, go to www.press.org or go to www.cdc.gov.