World MRSA Awareness Month

MRSA Survivors Network

MORRIS, ILLINOIS, USA, October 19, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- ‘The MRSA Epidemic -A Call to Action’ is again this year’s global theme for the 14th World MRSA Awareness Month annual campaign. MRSA Survivors Network continues to raise the alarm concerning the ongoing global methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) epidemic in healthcare facilities and in the community.

With the onset of COVID-19, many healthcare facilities have suspended screening patients and reporting infection rates for MRSA. Recent studies have proven that MRSA infections have increased due to lack of screening patients in healthcare facilities.

The United States’ Veterans Health Administration (VA) hospitals have reported a significant reduction in MRSA infections. The Veterans Health Administration has been screening their patients for MRSA since 2007 in their 150 facilities and have reduced their infections dramatically. Their population are high risk and they have largely based their control protocols on surveillance and isolation, along with hand hygiene. American Journal of Infection Control.

The United States private healthcare facilities have largely adopted a one size fits all system of control with few mandates, which many patient advocates see as a disconcerted effort and lack of commitment to eradicate MRSA. Many healthcare facilities only screen ICU patients, if at all. Federal and state health departments must again focus on the ongoing MRSA epidemic and be finally committed to eradicating this virulent bacterium. Patients have survived COVID only to have succumbed to a healthcare-acquired MRSA infection.

Northern European countries have controlled MRSA to low numbers by screening patients for decades, yet the CDC does not recommend routine screening. Over 300 evidence-based studies recommend screening for MRSA.

There is a significant lack of transparency worldwide on MRSA infection rates and deaths. A worldwide surveillance system set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) is needed to track MRSA infection and death rates. The collected data must be published on a public website.

A bundled, comprehensive approach is needed for infection control in healthcare facilities for MRSA: active detection (using rapid testing), isolation, strict adherence to hand hygiene, decolonizing patients, decontamination of the environment and continue implementing a good stewardship program for antibiotics. A culture change within the healthcare industry and a strong commitment from the top in reducing MRSA infections is crucial to stop unnecessary deaths and needless pain and suffering.

Jeanine Thomas, Founder of MRSA Survivors Network states, “Contracting MRSA is a dehumanizing experience for many patients and leaves lasting psychological scars, bankruptcy, loss of employment, loss of health insurance, homelessness, chronic disease, compromised immune system and a drastic reduction in the quality of life. Many MRSA victims feel stigmatized.”

MRSA Survivors Network is a (501 c 3) nonprofit founded in 2003. It was the first patient advocacy organization in the U.S. to raise the alarm. Ms. Jeanine Thomas is the founder of World MRSA Day, World MRSA Awareness Month, International MRSA Testing Week and founder of the patient advocacy movement for MRSA and healthcare-acquired infections (HAI’s) in the United States. She is a survivor of MRSA sepsis and C. difficile.

For information on how you can become a Corporate Sponsor (donations are tax deductible), organize an event, donate, volunteer and get involved to make a difference, contact us at: 815 710-5026 www.MRSAsurvivors.org jthomas@MRSAsurvivors.org Twitter.com/MRSAsurvivors and at Facebook.com/MRSASurvivorsNetwork

Jeanine Thomas
MRSA Survivors Network
+1 815-710-5026
jthomas@mrsasurvivors.org

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