132,000 U.S. Women Dying Every Year from Iotrogenic Infectious Diseases
Unregulated Private Physicians: A Major Problem For Women
Mansfield, OH (PRWEB) June 14, 2004 -- 132,000 U.S. Women Dying Every Year
from Iotrogenic Infectious Diseases.
FATAL PROBE by Will Locksley - Six
year study of 400 medical records, case files and interviews uncovers what could
be the greatest cover-up ever by the American Medical Association.
New
release/two weeks: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, ... Prerelease copy available
for download to media as PDF at no charge.
Exerpts from the book, Chapter
IX:
Unregulated Private Physicians: A Major Problem for Women
In an
average year in the U.S. there are 110 million gynecological examinations in the
offices of private practitioners and clinics. At least 3.3 million of them are
contracting infectious/contagious diseases.
As discussed in Chapter II,
the Institute of Medicine estimates that over 100,000 patients die every year in
U.S. hospitals as a result of medical errors or mistakes…. and beginning in 1999
that dialogue was sold to the American public in newspaper banners and on TV
news programs across the nation. However, the important story is that 80% or
80,000 of those 100,000 patients die from an infectious disease.
This
fact – published by the CDC – was noted in earlier reports in 1999, but seldom
mentioned when reported on in recent years. The 80,000 who die from infectious
diseases are conveniently 'bundled in' with the other 20,000, most of whom did
die because of medical errors.
Why is this a big deal? Why is this
noteworthy? For two primary reasons:
1. Many, if not most
of those 80,000 deaths (every year) are preventable.
2.
The 80,000 represent only 4% of the estimated 2,000,000 (two million) hospital
patients who are actually cross-infected every year.
Most
patient-to-patient infections are preventable because they are primarily caused
by the conscious, predetermined use of non-sterile devices, non-sterile
procedures, non-sterile techniques or some combination thereof. Therefore, these
80,000 yearly deaths are not ‘medical errors’ or 'medical mistakes'.
They are caused by or the result of procedures put into place by
committees of hospital staffs that make decisions based on discussions with
staffs of other hospitals and medical institutions. However, these general
procedures are based primarily on the ludicrous, irresponsible guidelines of the
CDC and FDA .
A few examples of what causes patient
cross-infection:
Failure to sterilize ALL reusable gynecological devices
before reuse is not a "medical error", it is a conscious
decision.
Failure to use single-use lubricants instead of 'community gel
jars' is not a "medical error", it is a conscious decision.
Failure to
use sterile or sheathed endoscopes is not a "medical error", it is a conscious
decision.
Failure to use individually packaged sterile gloves instead of
non-sterile gloves from 'community glove boxes' is not a "medical error" , it is
a conscious decision.
To be sure we understand the enormity of
this:
Every year 80,000 patients die from preventable cross-infections
while seeking medical help in hospitals...a horrible, grotesque, agonizing, slow
death...that, in most cases, requires even more medical treatment (money) than
the original illness.
(Therefore, this "infection problem" is in
actuality an income producer for the medical profession of enormous
proportions.)
Note: This is 20 times the number of deaths – each and
every year – as those caused by terrorists on the one-day attack at the World
Trade Center .
Humans do indeed become callous, thick-skinned and even
apathetic to recurrent, unceasing revulsions to which they are frequently
exposed. The loss of our naiveté as a result of the constantly repeated display
of violence and sexual explicitness in the print media, on television and in the
movies is a good example .
Private Offices
Though certainly
shocking, the 80,000 deaths-from-infection only includes the 33.6 million
hospital admissions, not the 880 million yearly visits to private clinics and
physicians’ offices, where medical errors and infections are virtually
impossible to track.
This is because there is virtually no oversight of
private doctors and clinics. The public is left to trust the doctors, nurses and
other staff to simply ‘do the right thing’ and not cut corners… in the privacy
of their unregulated offices.
Self-Regulated
Because of this total
absence of oversight and lack of infection control units, it is safe to assume
the risk of cross-infection is significantly greater in private clinics and
doctors’ offices than in hospitals.
Once an MD is licensed to practice
in a state, there is no oversight of his/her office practices. Therefore, there
can be no doubt that the level of standard associated with the examining rooms,
the staff, the techniques, the medical devices and the physicians affiliated
with private practices and clinics would be found far below those of a highly
regulated hospital environment.
Lack of concern for the safety of
medical patients becomes clear when one considers the fact that there is an
oversight-type office associated with almost every 'blue collar' occupation in
every county government – plumbers, electricians, builders, et al.
Could
our government leaders be telling us that the reverence of their plumbing,
electrical and building codes are more important than whether or not
irresponsible doctors are cross-infecting patients with HIV, HPV, HCV and other
deadly pathogens?
Hospitals are required to meet rigorous guidelines in
order to pass accreditation standards set by governing bodies, such as The Joint
Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). Hospitals are
also held to high standards by state and federal agencies, and almost all
hospitals staff an autonomous Infection Control Unit.
In addition,
because hospitals have substantially larger budgets, there are far greater
resources available to them for achieving and maintaining considerably higher
standards than the offices of private physicians . Comparing hospital infection
control regulations and procedures with those of physicians' offices and private
clinics is certainly an eye-opening view into the enormity of the dangers
threatening the private patient'.
However, a causal relationship or
ratio between hospital-related infections and all private office-related
infections is not suggested. After all, most office visits do not involve highly
invasive examinations, in which cross-infections are a much greater risk.
Gynecological Exams
The greater the number of patients of a
facility who are infected with one or more diseases, the more likely other
patients of that same facility will become cross-infected.
Though most
office visits do not involve highly invasive examinations, one large segment
does.
More than 110 million of the 880 million yearly visits to private
physicians involve unregulated gynecological examinations , and there is as
great or greater potential of infection during a gynecological exam than there
is during many hospital visits. Combined with the fact that the exam is a highly
invasive procedure, a significant percentage of OBGYN patient visits are
occasioned by infectious disease complaints.
Infectious disease
accounted for 19.0% of the annual visits to private physicians from 1980 through
1996 and visits for females was 27% higher for infectious disease than for
males.
"40% of new consultations with family doctors are for infectious
disease."
(In addition, it is important to remember that most 'infectious
disease' hospital admissions are first seen in a private physician’s
office.)
Using the 6% yearly infection rate from tightly regulated hospitals,
we can estimate the number of women infected during visits to their medical
provider each year.
Data gathered from the CDC, the AMA and other
organizations indicates that, on average, women visit their doctor's office
twice a year. Therefore, we will use half of the 110 million office visits
referred to above as our base number.
Applying the 6% hospital infection
rate to these 55 million women is more than conservative, in that they are
visiting their doctors twice a year, instead of only once, as is the case with
most all hospital patients. This, of course gives them a greater 'opportunity'
of infection.
Nonetheless, we will apply the conservative 6% rate to the
55 million women, which indicates that 3.3 million women are cross-infected each
year with an infectious disease… during visits to their private doctor or
clinic.
As stated in the Introduction, some of these infections may
result in the patient becoming cross-infected with something as serious as a
life-threatening pathogen: i.e. HIV, HCV, HBV, CJD, HPV (cervical cancer),
something as unnerving and troublesome as a yeast infection or one of a number
of other infectious/contagious diseases.
An even more somber
consideration is: How many of these 3.3 million women die who contract these
diseases, and how many of them 'pass it on to' (cross-infect) their mates… or to
their children?
Again using the CDC numbers ascribed to hospital
patients (4% of the 2 million infected hospital patients die from the disease),
this would indicate that these iatrogenic infectious diseases are the direct
cause of the deaths of 132,000 U.S. women… every year.
If that many women
are being cross-infected every year, if that many women are dying, then why
isn't it in the news? Why haven’t women rallied to voice their concerns and
complaints?
The Primary Reason:
Symptoms of these diseases do not
manifest until 30 to 60 days - or much longer - after the initial infection.
Also:
If patients do question their medical providers as to the
possibility of contamination during their office visits, they are scoffed at,
told the infection was either already present and lying dormant in their system,
or that they were infected after the exam.
They are asked if they have
had any sexual activity since the exam or, though it may seem ridiculous, within
20, 30 40 years prior to the exam. (See Chapter V.)
The patient is told
it would be impossible to contract a disease from a medical instrument. In most
cases, the patient has no choice but to accept the word of the doctor. After
all, they need her/his help to cure the infection… so it would not be smart to
question too much.
In Addition:
Private patient records are
treated almost as the private property of the physician or clinic, hospital
records are randomly reviewed by JCAHO (see above) and other oversight groups.
In order to stop the atrocious, medieval practice of using
non-sterilized gynecological medical instruments, specific rules and protocols
must be established that require the sterilization of those reusable devices.
A comprehensive process should be devised that will monitor the
examining rooms, the staff, the procedures, the instruments and the physicians
affiliated with private practices and clinics; otherwise, women will continue to
be unknowingly and unnecessarily infected or cross-infected at the hands of
their medical providers.
Contact:
William Parrish, Editor
e-mail
protected from spam bots
877-GMI-2005
# # #
Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/6/prweb133153.htm