WARNING!
This is an older article that may not reflect Dr. Mercola’s current view on this topic. Use our search engine to find Dr. Mercola’s latest position on any health topic.
Over the past decade, the number of Washington hospital patients infected with a frightening, antibiotic-resistant germ called MRSA has skyrocketed from about 140 a year to more than 4,700. But these numbers, revealed by a Seattle Times investigation, don't appear in public documents. Washington regulators don't track the germ or its victims, and Washington hospitals do not have to reveal infection rates.
MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is spread by touch or contact. Six out of seven people infected with MRSA contract it at a health-care facility. Many people first learned about the germ in 2007 when the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that invasive MRSA infections claim at least 18,000 lives a year, more than AIDS.