Results tagged “mrsa”

The drug-resistant infection MRSA--a potentially deadly "superbug"--had to face the bacteria-fighting Washington legislature on Monday, as they unanimously passed a bill requiring Washington hospitals to screen (via nasal swabs) for MRSA in high-risk patients. The MRSA bill now awaits Gov. Chris Gregoire's signature. If passed, hospitals would begin screening on January 1, 2010. Washington would become the fifth state to mandate MRSA nasal swabbing...err, testing.

The state has finally caught on to the truth, thanks to dogged and brave investigation from the Seattle Times: MRSA, a potentially fatal, antibiotic-resistant strain of staph scourging the nation's hospital patients and other sufferers at exponentially increasing rates, is a big deal and pretending it's either inevitable or non-existent won't make it go away. We're not sure why it took so damn long for this to become a rule, but the Times announces that it is at last now mandatory for Washington hospitals to report MRSA incidences.