The blog Freakonomics had a post today on changing incentives to increase handwashing. The reasoning was that spreading infection can be thought of as an externality.
Many people acquire infections, often fatal ones, during hospital stays. In fact, hospitals lack appropriate incentives to take infection-control measures. Partly, this is because third parties bear most of the cost of treating such infections. However, another problem when hospitals share patients is that several hospitals can be put at risk as a result of a patient becoming infected in one hospital.
Read the commentary at Resources for the Future or see below:
I've spent the past several days in Atlanta participating in a conference on healthcare-associated infections that only happens once every 10 years. The meeting is hosted by SHEA (Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America), CDC, as well as infection organizations IDSA and APIC and runs until Monday.
I'm not sure of the exact count, but there have to be several thousand people here from all over the world who have many different perspectives on how to address the problem of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), which are often preventable.
On February 22, Extending the Cure published a study in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine that found that two common conditions caused by hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) killed 48,000 people and ramped up health care costs by $8.1 billion in 2006 alone. The study has recieved significant media attention.
This week's economist focuses on New Dangers for the World Economy and offers a fascinating article on drug-resistant bacteria. A study by Norwegian researchers looked at how animals, that are not given antibiotics, acquire resistant bacteria.
Time Magazine (and other media outlets) wrote this week about taking weight into account when prescribing medications. A study released this week finds that, though it is not common practice, weight absolutely should be a factor in antibiotic prescription. We have written about this on this blog as well.
This week, Dutch researchers released a study finding that MRSA is often spread by patients moving from one hospital to another. They determined that more stringent screening processes can significantly limit the spread of the antibiotic-resistant disease. The New York Times put together
On December 23, Extending the Cure released a new study on the rise in drug resistance to Acinetobacter in U.S. Hospitals. This blog posted about the study when it came out, but here is a sample of the media coverage for your information as well:
Over the past few weeks, the media has been buzzing about a new study finding that household disinfectants can “boost the resistance of some bacteria to life-saving antibiotics.” A small sample of the coverage is listed here: