In its increased effort to prevent the spread of drug-resistant infections in healthcare settings and stop the rising rates of drug-resistant infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have released a new set of guidelines calling on hospitals and other healthcare facilities to make comprehensive infection control programs a priority and to take aggressive steps to reduce rates of drug resistance.

The proportion of antibiotics-resistant bacteria have rose steeply in the past 30 years. Resistance to antibiotics occurs when bacteria change or adapt in a way that allows them to survive in the presence of antibiotics designed to kill them: Staphylococcus aureus being the good example of this phenomenon.

In 1972, only 2 percent of these types of bacteria were drug resistant. By 2004, 63 percent of these types of bacteria had become resistant to the antibiotics commonly used to treat them, and methicillin-resistant "staph" infections, often referred to as MRSA, are a growing problem in hospitals and healthcare facilities such as nursing homes and dialysis centers. In a few cases, bacteria become so resistant that no available antibiotics are effective against them.

The new CDC guideline: Management of Multidrug-Resistant Organisms in Healthcare Settings, was developed by internationally recognized experts in infection control in conjunction with CDC's Healthcare Infection Control
Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC).

Staph infections, including MRSA, occur most frequently among persons in hospitals and healthcare facilities who have weakened immune systems, and often result in bloodstream infections, surgical site infections or pneumonia.

In order to prevent and control antibiotic-resistant infection, the new guidelines illustrate the sevberal steps that hospitals and healthcare facilities need
to take, including:

• Ensuring prevention programs are funded and adequately staffed
• Carefully tracking infection rates and related data to monitor the impact of prevention efforts
• Ensuring that staff use standard infection control practices and follow guidelines regarding the correct use of antibiotics
• Promoting best-practices with health education campaigns to increase adherence to established recommendations
• Designing robust prevention programs customized to specific settings and local needs

Find more details from the CDC press release.