From British Journal of Infection Control
‘Hospital superbug claiming lives’, ‘Dirty NHS hospitals to blame for MRSA’, ‘Unclean wards killing patients’. These familiar UK newspaper headlines have terrified the public over recent years. However the author of this letter explains how their move from working on UK NHS wards to American hospitals revealed the superbug is not a problem left behind on British soil. In their experience the bug is just as prevalent in the cleanest US hospitals. The author believes the great British public need to be made aware that MRSA is a truly global phenomenon plaguing large numbers of countries. The differences observed are less about the spread of the infection and more about the political handling and levels of media propaganda.
Letter details:
Title: MRSA in the United Kingdom where science meets politics, and a sensationalist media produces a misinformed public
Author: Suneel Dhand
From: British Journal of Infection Control 2008; 9; 25
DOI: 10.1177/1469044607086104
