Colon superbug cases soar

The Bush record of incompetence continues.

And yes, I blame Bush, or at least his party. He presided over this, and the Republicans controlled Congress during the time in question, so whose fault is it? Is the 20% crowd going to try to blame Jimmy Carter for this too, even though it started 20 years after he left office?

The CDC has revealed that cases of Clostridium difficile or C. diff, a superbug infection that afflicts the colon, are skyrocketing. C. diff causes diarrhea and even colitis. It can even be fatal.

Nationwide, the number of people hospitalized with C. diff has been growing by over 10,000 a year. In 2005 (the most recent year for which data is available), the number of C. diff hospitalizations was over twice what it was in 2000. And it was twice as likely to be fatal in 2004 than in 2000. C. diff outbreaks have been reported in other countries too, but none as severe as in the U.S., where it now afflicts 300,000 a year.

And this bacterial infection is resistant to antibiotics.

The real tragedy is that people died when they didn't have to. C. diff is likely preventable: It's spread by spores in fecal matter. You have to wonder how people end up with C. diff.

Much of this goes right back to the declining health care system. C. diff now afflicts a staggering 13% of hospital patients who are hospitalized for less than 2 weeks, and most C. diff cases follow exposure to hospitals, schools, or other institutions. Translation: Hospitals and schools have become dirtier. Whose fault is that?

I didn't know hospitals were here to make people sicker.

While it's clear C. diff is on the rise, it's unclear what the government is doing about it, other than sitting on its ass like it usually does.

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=4f9088b0-6a08-4da3-844b-ec6a474decec)