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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=24376