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medpundit |
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Thursday, March 27, 2003The researchers examined data on 2.4 million patients discharged from New York hospitals in 2001; about 1.3 million of them had conditions that may put them at increased risk for contact vaccinia. Those at increased risk include: newborns; patients with immune system diseases; those with skin conditions including eczema; and cancer patients and others on immune-suppressing medication. The CDC has estimated that between 15 percent and 18 percent of the general population has an at-risk condition. The percentage among hospitalized patients naturally would be higher. CDC immunization specialist Dr. Walter Orenstein said the risk of doctor-to-patient transmission is very small if precautions are taken. One of the problems with the study is that it overestimates the numbers for each condition because it only looks at discharge diagnoses compiled over the year, not at the number of individual patients with those conditions. Some of the conditions, such as emphysema, cancer, and diabetes, often result in multiple hospitalizations over the course of the year for the same patient. The researchers didn’t make that distinction. The other flaw is that it assumes that hospital patients are going to come in direct contact with an employee's vaccination site. That’s extremely difficult to do, especially if it’s covered with a bandage. posted by Sydney on 3/27/2003 07:43:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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