Healthcare-associated infections kill 100,000 each year in the U.S., 
often because basic safety guidelines are not followed. That is what makes a medical study recently published in the American Journal of Infection Control so disconcerting.
How Are Surgical Patients Exposed To Incurable Brain Disease?
Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD) is an untreatable brain disease
affecting one in one million people each year. It is thankful that CJD is rare, because it is often regarded as the human version of "mad cow" disease, quickly transforming healthy brain proteins into unhealthy cells. This is what makes news from a North Carolina hospital so disturbing.
After Sepsis-Related Amputations, Girl Settles Lawsuit For $32M
Ashanti Norals, 11,
suffered a relatively minor knee injury at school, but hospital negligence led to the amputation of all four of her limbs.
Considering Hip Or Knee Surgery? List Of Best And Worst Hospitals
Choose your hospital for hip or knee replacement surgery wisely, 
as the complication rate can greatly differ. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) has recorded the number of complications that Medicare patients suffered after receiving knee or hip surgery at U.S. hospitals.
Medical Study Suggests That Infant Bedsores Are Wholly Preventable
Bedsores, also known as pressure sores or decubitus ulcers
, commonly victimize prematurely-born infants during their stay in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Medical research has revealed that as many as 25 percent of infants born preterm will suffer pressure sores during hospitalization. That is why the results of a new study are encouraging to parents of babies born preterm.
Hospital Tuberculosis Outbreak Infects At Least 26
The word "tuberculosis" used to bring trepidation to Americans.
The creation of the antibiotic streptomycin in 1946 largely quieted this fear, but a new drug-resistant strain of the disease has surfaced in recent decades. A recent tuberculosis outbreak at a Las Vegas hospital shows why people, again, should fear "TB."
JAMA Study: U.S. Hospital Infections Cost $10 Billion Annually
Health care-associated infections (HAIs) affect 1 in 20 patients,
according to the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). HAIs are a top-10 cause of death in the United States, killing 2,500 annually, but the problem only seems to be worsening.
Study Seeks Truth In Connection Between Diflucan, Birth Defects
Diflucan (fluconazole) is a medicine designed to treat fungal infections,
but it has recently been scrutinized for an alleged tie to birth defects. Many scientists believe that when pregnant women take high doses of Diflucan, the fetus faces an increased risk of birth defects.
Healthcare-Associated Infections Plague 1.7 Million Every Year
Patients
go to the hospital to improve their health, but each year 1.7 million Americans become worse when they suffer a healthcare-associated infection (HAI). These infections may involve deadly bacteria like clostridium difficile (C. diff), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureaus (MRSA) and E. coli. What's especially frightening is that HAIs have been trending upward for years.
Decontamination Process Reduces MRSA Infections By 40 Percent
Deadly bacteria like MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, kill more people every year than AIDS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The problem is especially serious because the majority of these infections occur in hospitals and nursing homes, where patients are medically vulnerable. The medical community has struggled to find ways to combat these "superbugs," but new research has uncovered a great method to fight MRSA and other bacteria.
