Antibiotic resistance should be listed as a cause of death on official certificates, one of Britain’s leading experts on superbugs has said.
Lord Jim O’Neill, a former Goldman Sachs economist and chair of the Chatham House think tank, told a conference in London – also attended by former Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies – that the move would help raise awareness of the growing superbug crisis.
I took it for granted this would be happening, silly me.
It would also help quantify the problem more accurately.
Most of the super bugs are opportunist and normally infect people with serious health problems. I worked on a high dependency unit and there is no doubt that infections could and did contribute to the cause of death. From memory it was often difficult to establish the primary cause. In a number of cases the patient would have 2 or 3 reasons for cause of death entered. The question being would he have died due to the cardiac problems which lead to renal failure even if he had not caught the infection or was the infection the primary cause.
Thanks for that. Seems sensible- even if down in a new category- as a second/contributory cause. The categories are a bit odd at the moment.
Emphysema diagnosis- what happens now?
A Poem - for Carole (CDPO 16)
Just to say thank you everyone.
Copd bloating & breathless
Is Trimbow causing me health problems
