And if they are patients staying in a nursing home, they continue to acquire more superbugs – and these bugs can still be present on the hands even up to six months later.
It’s a common problem. In one test of 357 elderly patients, 24 per cent had at least one multidrug-resistant organism, or superbug, on their hands, researchers from the University of Michigan discovered.
And the problem got worse over time; after six months, one in three – or 34 per cent – of the patients had acquired at least one superbug.
Just as doctors are told to wash their hands, so the same should apply to patients, say the researchers.
(Source: JAMA Internal Medicine, 2016; doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.0142)
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