Deadly Hospital Infections Increasing-The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced in March of 1998 that the rate at which patients pick up an infection while staying in hospitals has increased 36% in the past 20 years. An estimated 2 million patients develop a hospital acquired infection in the US each year, and 90,000 die as a result (2.9 deaths per 1000). The use of more invasive procedures over the years has greatly increased the risks of infection, and is only compounded by the non-compliance of hospital personal- including doctors and nurses-with hand-washing regulations. Source: Reuters, March 11, 1998

Antibiotic Resistance-In 1985, fewer than 10 percent of America’s medical schools included infection control as part of their curricula. Today every school teaches infection-control practices, "But its not infection control,"says Maryanne McGuckin, "its how to use antibiotics." The role of antibiotics in medicine has become controversial since the eruption of resistant strains of many types of bacteria. "In at least 70 percent of the hospital-acquired infections that occur, the organism is resistant to at least one antibiotic, In 35 to 40 percent of infections, the organism is actually resistant to the best drug you would use to treat the organism," Dr. William Jarvis of the CDC says. Now, vancomycin, the ‘silver bullet" antibiotic for staph infections has been found to be ineffective against several types of bacteria that cause staph infections. Despite recommendations from the CDC to stem use for only the most severe cases of infection, its use has increased 200 fold and was found to be unnecessary in two-thirds of the cases studied. Source: Detroit News, Nov. 6, 1997: Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 24, 1997.

Staying Healthy-Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, or staph, is a common and often harmless germ when it is encountered by a healthy immune system. When that immune system is challenged by an illness, surgery, or years of reliance upon antibiotics to do what the body is designed to do on its own, the environment will support the growth of bacteria, and infection will result. The indiscriminate use and abuse of antibiotics has resulted in a crisis. If vancomycin becomes ineffective, "we could be back to the 1930’s when 85 percent of those who developed staph bloodstream infections died," said epidemiologist Dr. Michael Edmond. There will always be the chance of getting an infection while under care in a hospital, but we can try to avoid hospital stays by maintaining a healthy immune system. Regular chiropractic care has shown to have beneficial effects on the immune system. In fact, so much so that studies have shown that children under chiropractic care had significantly fewer occurrences of ear infections and tonsillitis – both of which are common childhood ailments for which antibiotics are (inappropriately) prescribed. Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 24, 1997; Journal of Chiropractic Research, summer 1989