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

If this is what Universal Health Care is like...

[Nutria]

count me out!!

What I heard about hospitals in the UK is that they indeed are dirty,

From TFA:

Aker University Hospital is a dingy place to heal. The floors are streaked and scratched. A light layer of dust coats the blood pressure monitors. A faint stench of urine and bleach wafts from a pile of soiled bedsheets dropped in a corner.

Re:Stop with the drugs already

[introspekt.i]

... lobbies haven't chipped away at the naïveté of youth.

There, fixed that for you. Now go get vaccinated and get off my lawn.

Re:Stop with the drugs already

[Ethanol-fueled]

Are you the guy who sprays Lysol everywhere whenever someone sneezes at work?

You might actually develop your own immune system if you quit huffing that noxious crap :)

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

[PCM2]

Sure. And if a grocery clerk or a truck driver told me this story and he casually mentioned Tylenol, I would think nothing of it. On the other hand, and maybe it's just because I'm a writer/editor myself, I expect reporters to nitpick. Accuracy is the job. Lack of attention to detail is the first inch down the slippery slope to sloppy journalism.