‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll

Re:‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising ... by danso on Wednesday September 07, 2016 @11:35AM (#12444250)

Really fascinating to me how some of the problem originates from the lack of proper coding standards:

> As examples in this article show, superbug infections are often omitted from death certificates. But even when they are recorded, NCHS can’t feed that information into vital statistics: The World Health Organization (WHO) classification system the agency uses lacks mortality codes for most drug-resistant infections, though it has codes for more than 8,000 other possible causes of death.

> The CDC added codes for use in the United States for terrorism-related deaths a year after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It could do the same for deaths from drug-resistant infections. Officials told Reuters the CDC is instead working to incorporate the codes into the WHO’s next revision of the international classification system. The revised system is expected to be completed in 2018 but not fully in use until the 2020s.

The problem of inconsistencies in death certificates have been around since, well, the history of death certificates: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/04/07/final-forms

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Re:‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising ... by apathy on Wednesday September 07, 2016 @12:10PM (#12444552)

Part of the issue is assigning "cause" (singular) of death. I'm still kind of shocked that there isn't mandatory reporting of bacterial vectors (when identified) the way there is for (eg) tumors. Sepsis is common enough that positive identification of the primary strain(s) involved could be a huge unfunded mandate, though, and judging by the way Zika is going, unfunded is being optimistic.

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Re:‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising ... by danvayn on Wednesday September 07, 2016 @12:13PM (#12444571)

I wouldn't say sepsis is that common. More with the elderly and alcoholic crowds, but not generally speaking

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Re:‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising ... by apathy on Wednesday September 07, 2016 @12:30PM (#12444704)

Fastest growing source of CMS billings over the past 10 years and one of the top 20 causes of death overall. In the US, it seems that nosocomial cases are rising faster than expected (larger proportion of the total) which is especially worrying.

As far as the "old" crowd -- who gets sick most often?! It certainly isn't strapping young men and women, not in any hospital I've ever been in outside of a war zone.

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Re:‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising ... by openasocket on Wednesday September 07, 2016 @12:22PM (#12444638)

From the wikipedia page, it seems more common than you would think. In the US it is the 10th most common cause of death, and globally kills 200k a year.

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