BALTIMORE, April 17 Johns Hopkins Hospital physicians are screening every child admitted to its pediatric intensive care unit for the two most common hospital superbugs.The more stringent admission screening methods for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus, or VRE, go well beyond standard hospital practices.The new practice was introduced March 1 after a Johns Hopkins study showed that more frequent screening detected many more carriers of the germs before their presence led to infection or the germs spread to others.The findings are being presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Health Care Epidemiology of America in Baltimore.Patients found to be infected or to be a carrier are placed in isolation. Wound care is done only in designated, confined treatment spaces and hospital staff must take special precautions between treatments, such as cleaning equipment and furniture with strong disinfectants and wearing disposable gloves, masks and gowns.Copyright 2007 by UPI
