From the ArcaMax Publishing, Health & Fitness Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/healthtips/s-183499-277378
BALTIMORE (UPI) -- Johns Hopkins Hospital physicians are screening
every child admitted to its pediatric intensive care unit for the two
most common hospital superbugs.
The more stringent admission screening methods for
methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, and
vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus, or VRE, go well beyond standard
hospital practices.
The new practice was introduced March 1 after a Johns Hopkins study
showed that more frequent screening detected many more carriers of the
germs before their presence led to infection or the germs spread to
others.
The findings are being presented at the annual meeting of the Society
of Health Care Epidemiology of America in Baltimore.
Patients found to be infected or to be a carrier are placed in
isolation. Wound care is done only in designated, confined treatment
spaces and hospital staff must take special precautions between
treatments, such as cleaning equipment and furniture with strong
disinfectants and wearing disposable gloves, masks and gowns.