GIVEN the choice between staying at home or going into hospital when we are ill, most people today would probably stay home. Ten years back the choice would have been hospital. The major cause for the change is that hospital-acquired infections have risen 5 per cent in two years. During a recent House of Commons debate, Joan Ruddock, the Labour MP for Lewisham, Deptford, told MPs about a south London hospital where two patients had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. How could the elderly in hospitals or nursing homes feel safe with such a threat, she asked.
John Reid, the health secretary, agreed with her and said that MRSA was the biggest challenge we face in our hospitals, but added that staphylococci exist outside hospitals, and MRSA was the most difficult one to tackle. It was dangerous because people in hospitals tend to be weak, and in many cases elderly. Reid said the government was exploring ways to tackle MRSA, and a key part of that was to focus on the areas of hospitals that house vulnerable, critical or elderly patients.
There were many reasons why it was difficult to overcome MRSA. We need more new hospitals, better-trained staff, more single wards, improved designs for our hospitals, as well as general hospital training in hygiene, and specialists to advise on combating infection. Progress was being made, but the secretary said he would welcome ideas from all quarters on how best to put these measures into practice.
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However, I believe the position is no worse than a quarter of a century ago, when hospital records were less specific. All the same, no one doubts there is a major problem now, despite most hospitals’ efforts to strive for perfect cleanliness.
AN early childhood memory of mine is of suffering 16 bee stings all at once. My mother kept bees, and one day when she was taking honey she accidentally bumped their hive. Both she and a bee-keeping friend were well protected – but as a bystander in singlet and shorts I was the focus of the bees’ anger.
But now I have reason to consider I was fortunate, for the stings have probably protected me against the bane of hereditary arthritis. The supposed anti-arthritic effect of bee venom has long made it a folk remedy, but many considered it an old wives’ tale. Now a research team from Chungbuk National University in South Korea has thrown new light on the effects of melittin, the main peptide in bee venom.
In experiments on rats with induced inflammatory arthritis, low doses of melittin produced a dramatic reduction in tissue swelling. This suggests that the anti-arthritic effect is due to melittin’s anti-inflammatory properties. The Koreans investigated the effects of melittin on synovial cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis and concluded that it blocks the expression of inflammatory genes.
So the old wives’ tale is not so daft after all.
