X-Message-Number: 24376
From: "John de Rivaz" <>
Subject: Re: More influenza
Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2004 23:03:31 +0100

Coincidentally on the day of my previous post, the following appeared on the
BBC web site. The story was featured strongly in the BBC TV news at
breakfast time, and it was the top story on the 10 o'clock news in the
evening.

>>>
New bid to tackle superbug rates

The government is set to introduce new measures to tackle hospital
superbugs.
The health secretary says patients and staff will have more power to deal
with the issue and experts will come to the UK to work on reducing
infections
<<<

more on http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3881623.stm

On TV, it was said that in some countries hospital staff suffering from
diseases themselves were sent home not expected or even allowed to continue
to work.

The article and the TV said that hospital acquired infections kill some
5,000 people a year.

I would comment that if this is people that would not otherwise have died
from the illness that caused them to be admitted, this means that the UK 's
hospital service is analogous to an airline that kills 5000 passengers a
year, ie crashes about 15 jumbo jets per year.

MRSA is bacterial not viral and a totally different disease to influenza.
But Avian flu, if it takes a hold in the human population, appears to be as
deadly.

-- 
Sincerely, John de Rivaz:  http://John.deRivaz.com for websites including
Cryonics Europe, Longevity Report, The Venturists, Porthtowan, Alec Harley
Reeves - inventor, Arthur Bowker - potter, de Rivaz genealogy,  Nomad .. and
more

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