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Deadly Drug-Resistant Fungus Sparks Outbreaks In UK (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: More than 200 patients in more than 55 UK hospitals were discovered by healthcare workers to be infected or colonized by the multi-drug resistant fungus Candida auris, a globally emerging yeast pathogen that has experts nervous. Three of the hospitals experienced large outbreaks, which as of Monday were all declared officially over by health authorities there. No deaths have been reported since the fungus was first detected in the country in 2013, but 27 affected patients have developed blood infections, which can be life-threatening. And about a quarter of the more than 200 cases were clinical infections. Officials in the UK aimed to assuage fear of the fungus and assure patients that hospitals were safe. "Our enhanced surveillance shows a low risk to patients in healthcare settings. Most cases detected have not shown symptoms or developed an infection as a result of the fungus," Dr Colin Brown, of Public Health England's national infection service, told the BBC.
Yet, public health experts are uneasy about the rapid emergence and level of drug resistance the pathogen is showing. In a surveillance update in July, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that C. auris "presents a serious global health threat." It was first identified in the ear of a patient in Japan in 2009. Since then, it has spread swiftly, showing up in more than a dozen countries, including the U.S., according to the CDC. So far, health officials have reported around 100 infections in nine U.S. states and more than 100 other cases where the fungus was detected but wasn't causing an infection.
Yet, public health experts are uneasy about the rapid emergence and level of drug resistance the pathogen is showing. In a surveillance update in July, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that C. auris "presents a serious global health threat." It was first identified in the ear of a patient in Japan in 2009. Since then, it has spread swiftly, showing up in more than a dozen countries, including the U.S., according to the CDC. So far, health officials have reported around 100 infections in nine U.S. states and more than 100 other cases where the fungus was detected but wasn't causing an infection.
"In the NHS you get care for as long as you need it, free of charge if you're a UK citizen*"
WRONG. Talk about a bald-faced lie.
You get care for as long as the NHS deems you are worth treating. The second the doctors (who work for, are paid by, and make decisions in the best interest of NHS) feel like you are likely to be terminal, you are cut off. This is FACT. ABSOLUTE FACT.
When my gran came up with a small skin cancer on her ear, the doctor said it was melanoma and untreatable and NHS declined to treat, saying she would die anyway.
I flew her to the US the next week where, within 6 hours of landing in Atlanta, she was in the office having the legion removed. The doctor said it was Stage 1, non invaded, and that there was no excuse for NHS not to simply cut it off.
We never went back to the UK, and I brought my wife and kids over some weeks after. I couldn't have my kids murdered at some point by those butchers.
Or perhaps they are just more selfless than you? Maybe what you are doing is what's called projection - 'I'm a selfish bastard therefore everyone else has selfish motives too'.