Oxa-48 KP wreaking havoc

Photo: Wikipedia

According to press releases (here and here), the Maasstad Hospital in Rotterdam, Netherlands, has had 27 deaths due to oxa-48 producing Klebsiella pneumoniae infections over the last 11 months.

Now I am not saying this to be flippant or mean, but here's an example of how having the best MRSA control program in the world doesn't protect patients from other important pathogens. It's one of the most compelling arguments for focusing on practices that impact all organisms transmitted via contact--what we call a horizontal approach to infection prevention. Dan Diekema once said (on NPR, no less), "MRSA's not the only bad bug out there. It's just the most famous."