Deadly Hospital Infections on the Rise

Bring a bottle of Purell the next time you visit the hospital. The New York Times is reporting that in 2005 close to 19,000 Americans died from infections spread through hospitals and nursing homes - suggesting that drug-resistant bacterial infections "may be twice as common as previously thought." If so, hospital staph (aka MRSA) infections could cause more deaths per year than HIV-AIDS and even homicide.

This troubling data comes from a government study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, which found that of the more than 94,000 patients who contracted these infections, nearly one in five died. The study also found that 85% of "invasive MRSA infections" were connected to medical facilities - including hospitals and nursing homes - whether via unsterilized equipment or through people.

"The bacteria can be brought unknowingly into hospitals and nursing homes by patients who show no symptoms, and can be transmitted by contact as casual as the brush of a doctor's lab coat," the Times says. "Highly opportunistic, they can enter the bloodstream through incisions and wounds and then quickly overwhelm a weakened immune system."

Despite this grim news, the study is expected to spur an intense evaluation of hospital cleanliness and procedures.