Originally published January 8 2006
Poor hygiene in hospitals cited as factor that could contribute to a U.S. influenza pandemic
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The U.S. National Center for Policy Analysis has released a report that claims current hospital procedures, which allow for poor hygienic conditions, could help spread an outbreak of avian influenza, if they are not drastically changed.
Their report, combined with a Congressional Budget Office report showing a pandemic could cost the US economy $US675 billion ($NZ974.30 billion), adds to an increasingly dire picture being painted of what a bird flu pandemic would look like in the United States.
US officials continued to urge states and businesses to get ready for an outbreak of serious disease, issuing a checklist of preparations, while Congress wrestled with funding a federal plan before the end of the year.
Many reports have shown that hospitals can be a source for spreading such diseases, because health care workers fail to follow even basic hygiene practices such as washing their hands after touching any patient or piece of equipment.
"Shoddy infection control is poor preparation for flu and poor homeland security as well," said Betsy McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor of New York who heads the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, a group that campaigns about hospital infections and which helped write the report.
A separate report, from the US Congressional Budget Office, shows that a bird flu pandemic would cost the US economy $US675 billion if 30 per cent of the population were infected -- as has been the case in the past three pandemics.
US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, said the report assumed a 2.5 per cent mortality rate, that the pandemic would last for three months and that 30 per cent of the workforce would become ill and miss three weeks of work.
It predicted people would stay home and reduce turnout at restaurants, shopping malls, sporting events, churches and schools, with demand falling by 80 per cent for entertainment, arts, recreation, restaurants, and lodging.
"Together, the supply and demand impacts would result in a 5 per cent reduction in GDP (gross domestic product)," Frist said.
The report supports other predictions that have been made about the potential effect on the US economy.
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