A deadly infection is sweeping some NY hospitals — but health officials won’t say where NY Post, Apr 12, 2019, Betsy McCaughey
A killer germ is raging through some New York hospitals and nursing homes. But public health officials are deliberately keeping the public in the dark about it.
New York state is ground zero for this germ, called Candida auris. Over half the nearly 600 cases nationwide are right here, mostly in New York City. New Jersey hospitals are also hard hit, with more than 100 cases so far. A staggering 45 percent of patients who get it die within 90 days.
It’s especially dangerous because once it gets inside a hospital, it spreads. Patients with Candida auris shed it from their skin, putting everyone around them at risk. It also clings to privacy curtains, mattresses and bedrails, walls and ceilings, and it can live there for weeks. Routine cleaning can’t remove it. You don’t want to be assigned to a hospital room where a previous patient had this germ.
Candida auris also travels through the hospital on thermometers and blood-pressure cuffs used on one patient after another.
How can you avoid these dangers? Secrecy makes it hard.
Hospitals, state health departments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are putting up a wall of silence to keep the public from knowing which hospitals harbor Candida auris.
More:
https://nypost.com/2019/04/12/a-deadly-infection-is-sweeping-some-ny-hospitals-but-health-officials-wont-say-where/
