How Norway Fought Staph Infections

eldavojohn writes "Studies are showing that Norway's dirtiest hospitals are actually cleaner than most other countries', and the reason for this is that Norwegians stopped taking antibiotics. A number of factors like paid sick leave and now restrictions on advertising for drugs make Norway an anomaly when it comes to diseases like Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). A Norwegian doctor explains, 'We don't throw antibiotics at every person with a fever. We tell them to hang on, wait and see, and we give them a Tylenol to feel better.' Norway is the most MRSA free country in the world. In a country like Japan, where 17,000 die from MRSA every year, 'doctors overprescribe antibiotics because they are given financial incentives to push drugs on patients.'"

Comments

Re:How did they do this?

[thetoadwarrior]

It's because a lot of their support staff can hardly speak English but they're well aware their job is shit and they're getting paid peanuts.

They're not all bad though. I think it's just some hospitals in densely populated areas.

Re:Did someone in Norway really say 'Tylenol' ?

[PCM2]

Yes, but in Europe "acetaminophen" is known as paracetamol, so this was surely ad-libbed by an American writer. It makes one question how accurately the story was reported.