MRSA Infections Rampant - International MRSA Testing Week April 1-7

MORRIS, Ill., March 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "MRSA continues to be a major problem in U.S. healthcare facilities and greatly under reported", states Jeanine Thomas, founder and national spokesperson for MRSA Survivors Network.

In 2014, the admission of Ebola patients in U.S. healthcare facilities and now since 2020 with patients with COVID-19 revealed that healthcare facilities were still not prepared, lacked sufficient infection control protocols and equipment, staffing and training which has been evident in epidemic levels of healthcare-acquired infections (HAI's) in U.S. hospitals now for decades.

MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is the antibiotic resistant bacterium that has been a secret and silent killer in healthcare facilities and is at epidemic levels worldwide. High MRSA infection rates continue to fuel the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) global public health crisis: causing preventable deaths, pain and suffering and leaving many patients permanently disabled. The most recent data has shown that healthcare-acquired infections in the U.S. have risen 30%> and in some states as high as 99% in the past two years.

The 12th Annual International MRSA Testing Week, April 1-7^th" is a global awareness campaign and its slogan, "Prevention Saves Lives", and draws critical attention for the need of healthcare facilities to screen upon admission high-risk patients, decolonization, and continue a surveillance program along with isolating of patients that are found positive with MRSA, strict adherence to hand hygiene with thoroughly decontaminating rooms and frequently touched surfaces throughout the facility. Active detection and isolation (ADI) – screening and isolating MRSA-colonized or infected patients saves lives.

MRSA Survivors Network has produced a PSA for Int'l MRSA Testing Week with Mr. Rob Stafford, evening news Anchor for NBC Chicago and can be seen on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA6OFlzsCwI.  

Sponsors: Cepheid, Hibiclens

If we are to really believe in patient safety, all healthcare facilities worldwide with endemic MRSA should fully implement ADI as Northern European countries have done successfully; some for decades. In the era of paying for performance, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (including the CDC) should be mandating that ADI works to prevent and control MRSA with over 250 peer reviewed published papers and entire countries sup[porting this approach.  Healthcare facilities must be committed  to reducing MRSA infection rates, reducing costs and saving lives.

World MRSA Day, October 2 and World MRSA Awareness Month, October

The fourteenth Annual World MRSA Day and World MRSA Awareness Month event will be held Wednesday, October 5, 2022, with a webinar featuring infectious disease specialist's presentiations and MRSA survivors sharing their compelling stories.

MRSA Survivors Network was founded in 2003 and was the first patient advocacy organization to raise the alarm concerning MRSA, healthcare-acquired infections (HAI's) and antimicrobial resistance in the United States and operates the only U.S. MRSA Crisis Hotline (815) 710-5026. For information on how you can become a corporate sponsor, donate, volunteer or get involved, contact us at: 815 710-5026. [email protected] , www.MRSAsurvivors.org,  Twitter.com/MRSAsurvivors and at Facebook.com/MRSASurvivorsNetwork.

Media contact:
JEANINE THOMAS
[email protected]
630-730-0049

SOURCE MRSA Survivors Network