For sure, this BBC report is accurate. The NHS and medical profession in Britain are starting to recognise the seriousness of the threat of zoonotic diseases, originating in animals, reaching the hospitals.
…Researchers said there was a growing awareness
of animal and community sources of infection…
…"I think we're eating it all the time,
probably from animals, and most of us get it and it doesn't matter."…
And from contact with animals!
…"But there is a growing feeling that
community-acquired C. diff is equally important and there are also studies suggesting
possible transmission to humans from animals. This has quite clearly been
demonstrated from pigs to humans in the Netherlands"…
Obviously, you can’t be too clean in a hospital, but it
does not address the underlying problem. People are vulnerable in hospital, and that’s all of
us at some time or another. That is why patients are there, often under treatment
regimens, making them vulnerable.
Merely using the words “pre-existing condition,” a frequent
explanation, or an equivalent, does not excuse anyone. Much antibiotic resistant disease originated in livestock from the wild irresponsible use of antibiotics and was completely avoidable.
But nothing was done in Britain due to the intransigence and greed of an over-powerful veterinary elite protected and pampered by government and their veterinarians. It is a very serious long running scandal, not least in pigs, that will have to be tackled.
If dangerous drugs, in this quantity and doing this much damage to human health, were sold on the high streets of Britain, the dealers would be hunted down, prosecuted and gaoled.
The hospitals are still not asking the right questions of patients:
"Do you work with pigs or pork?"
for example, and providing the right tests, accommodation and treatment for those that do.
The Dutch, and others, are way ahead and have been protecting their hospitals for years.
On a personal note, that’s all three of the human
diseases mentioned under my signature for years, firmly linked to pigs, in
major sources in the last few days.
Alas, there are others: equally important,
equally dangerous.
26 September
2013 Last updated at 02:17
Most C. diff infections are 'not hospital
spread'
Most
cases of C. difficile are not actually caused by the bug being spread round
hospitals, a study suggests.
A team
from the University of Oxford said "more and more deep cleaning ain't
going to do any good".
Analysis
of every C. diff infection in Oxfordshire for more than three years showed less
than a fifth of cases had been spread between hospital patients.
Researchers
said there was a growing awareness of animal and community sources of
infection.
The gut
bug is one of the most feared "hospital infections". It can be
difficult to treat and deadly, especially in the elderly.
I think
we're eating it all the time, probably from animals, and most of us get it and
it doesn't matter”
Prof Tim PetoUniversity
of Oxford
