Medical Waste Management Jan-Mar 2013

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VOL. IX NO. 1

Jan-Mar 2013

Medical Waste Management www.medicalwastemanagementnews.com

Attention Readers ! Are you looking for Products, Equipment or Services for your business or healthcare facility? If so, please check out these leading companies advertised in this issue: Consulting Firms

Aristea Sustainability – pg 14

Infectious & Non-Infectious Waste Containers & Linen Carts

Rehrig Healthcare Systems - pg 2 TQ Industries – pg 9

Infectious Waste Sterilizing Systems

The Mark-Costello Co – pg 8 STI Biosafe – pg 7

Liquid Disposal Systems Bemis Health Care - pg 6

Shredders

Shred-Tech – pg 9 Vecoplan LLC - pg 16

Serving Healthcare Facility Waste Management Professionals

CRE

The Latest Super Bug to Hit Hospitals

F

By Todd Williams

irst there was MRSA and C-Diff. Now there is a new super bug plaguing the medical community, one that threatens to be even more difficult to control. The bacteria, known as CarbapenemResistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, have the uncanny ability to fight off the powerful carbapenem antibiotics as well as other, often used antibiotics. And although not yet as common as the more well-known hospitalacquired infections (HAI), CRE has been popping up in health care facilities in 42 states according to Alex Kallen, a medical officer with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Although CRE is such a widespread problem, the highest proportion of cases have been reported in the northeast area of the country, with the densest outbreaks found in New York City, Kallen notes. He adds that recently more numerous outbreaks of CRE have been logged in Miami, and Chicago. Other, smaller pockets of the bugs have been reported in Oregon, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Maryland and Virginia. In addition to the US, CRE strains have produced outbreaks in other countries as well. So-called “medical tourism” to

India, for example, has led to major outbreaks of CRE in Europe. According to Kallen, a coordinated, regional approach is needed to control a CRE outbreak. Because unlike other bugs, CRE transmission specifics are not as well known, the sharing of information is very important. Kallen notes surveillance of the bacteria is conducted and shared through the National Healthcare Safety Network and the Emergency Protection Program. According to the CDC, CRE belongs to an obscure family of drug-resistant bacteria that has been targeting hospitals and nursing homes for over 10 years. Now CRE with death rates as high as 40% in infected patients is emerging as a major problem in the medical community. E-Coli and Klebsiella are the two most common CREs, and both are found in the gut, explains Dr. Frank Esper, an infection disease physician at University Hospitals, Cleveland, Ohio. Other CREs show up as pneumonia, meningitis, abscesses, bloodstream infections and urinary tract infections. “In the gut,” he notes, “These bacteria usually cause no problem. Once they get outside Continued on page 3


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