Handwashing, Good Nutrition and New Antibiotics Useful to Fight Hospital Acquired Infections.

Hospital acquired infections kill about 100,000 annually in the USA.  Many infectious organisms such as Staphyloccocus aureus (MRSA), Closteridium difficile, gram negative bacteria and molds like Aspergillus and Candida have developed resistance to many common antibiotics.  Much more effort is needed to produce antibiotics for which the disease causing organisms are susceptible to. Considerable additional effort is also needed to prevent hospital acquired infections from occurring in the first place.

Recently a new type of antibiotic drugs called SASP are being tested in humans.  SASP are viruses which attack the DNA of bacteria and do not attack humans or other animals.   SASP has a low toxicity to humans, but effectively kills many disease causing bacteria such as Methicillin Resistant Staphyloccocus aureus (MRSA).  For a good review of SASP drugs- please see Drug News and Perspectives May 2009;22(4):197-203.

Many infection causing molds such as Aspergillus and Candida have developed resistance to many common anti-fungal drugs.  For the past several years, a new class of anti-fungal drugs calls echinocandins have been developed and include drugs such as Caspofungin and Micafungin.  These echinocandin drugs are very effective against most molds such as Aspergillus and Candida- but have low toxicity to humans and other animals.  For a good review of the Echinocandin drugs please see the September 2009 issue of Annals of Pharmarcotherapy.

Many interventions can greatly reduce the risk of hospital acquired infections.  The following interventions have all been shown to significantly reduce risk of hospital acquired infections: 1)  Handwashing by visitors and hospital staff.  When visiting hospitalized relatives and friends- insist that everyone washes their hands every time they visit, 2) Better cleaning of hospital rooms, 3) Better nutrition of hospitalized patients.  About 45 to 92% of all hospitalized patients are significantly malnourished.  Families of hospitalized patients should insist upon good diet and supplements for hospitalized patients.  For patients who must be tube fed, special “immunonutrion” tube formulas containing extra omega 3 fatty acids, zinc and vitamins can greatly reduce risk of infections. 4) Use of silver containing urinary and blood catheters.   5) Use of laparoscopic rather than open surgery when possible, 6) Use of sterile water and 7) Proper air filtration equipment for hospital rooms.

I have written a review of 48 interventions which significantly reduce risk of hospital acquired infections in the July 2008 Journal of Hospital Infection.  For a free copy of my review, please e-mail me at LukeTCurtis@aol.com.