This essay is about superbugs that can be found in a hospital setting. Because one out of every twenty patients admitted to a hospital will contract an infection according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it’s important to understand the science behind them. These superbugs are methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Clostridium difficile (C. diff), Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE), Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and Carbapenem-resistant and necrotizing fasciitis. These infections can be costly, difficult to treat, even life threatening. The best way to prevent the spread of infection is a simple task that will only take everyone 60 seconds or less to do.

Superbugs-Hospital Acquired Infections
A superbug is a …show more content…
Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium that lives on skin, or in the shedding of skin and can cause infection in open wounds. The common ways this can be spread is by hand contact of the healthcare worker or from healthcare environments where it may be living on contaminated sites. MRSA infections are categorized by two factors, one is the time of infection isolation and the other is presence or absence of MRSA-related risk factors. The risks factors are MRSA strains that are isolated 48 to 72 hours after admission to a health care facility or present at time of admission in recently discharged patients or residents of long-term care facility like nursing homes (Baddour, 2010). Oddly enough about 30% of people are colonized with MRSA and have no problems. This can mean people may have a natural resistance until they become sick and are hospitalized or by being healthy and carrying MRSA on our skin can cause someone else a MRSA infection. MRSA can cause complicated skin infections and pneumonia and requires stronger antibiotics (Punnoose, 2012). Hand washing and keeping equipment clean and sanitized are the key to prevention of spreading