Murcia Residences | Four nursing homes are hiding coronavirus and scabies outbreaks from the ministry
Four houses in the Murcia region have been damaged this year infectious disease outbreaks among its users, and this should have been reported to the Ministry of Health, they did not. This cover-up came to light by accident thanks to research work carried out by security specialists. Epidemology from the Region of Murcia for an international project on the prevalence of healthcare-associated infections in residential centers in the Region of Murcia during field work.
The project, reported in an Epidemiological Bulletin published yesterday, indicates that following verification of questionnaire information, active outbreaks were confirmed in four of the eleven Community residences investigated. shoots COVID-19Acute respiratory infections, scabies (scabies) and dermatitis methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
The authors insist that “Outbreaks need to be notified, but none have been notified to public health.”therefore, they believe that “there is room for improvement and a need for greater coordination.”
This case does not specify which residential buildings are affected, and the Ministry of Health did not respond to questions from La Opinión about the measures taken or what this means for those in charge of long-term care centers where there are large numbers of people with high dependencies that hide a situation of this type that could endanger the health of other users.
It was in 2023 that the region of Murcia joined an international project that began in 2008, when the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control began Surveillance of healthcare associated infections (IRAS) in long-term care facilities as part of the HALT (Healthcare Associated Infections in Long-Term Care Facilities) project to monitor these infections and antimicrobial use in these facilities.
The first study was conducted in 2010, followed by a second in 2013. This was in the third, between 2016 and 2017, when Spain joined, and now in the fourth edition (2023-2024) entered the Murcia region for the first timewith the aim of learning the reality of this type of infection in residential buildings and the use of antimicrobials.
Eleven residences studied
For the HALT 2023-2024 project, a team of epidemiologists from the Ministry of Health of Murcia selected eleven residences long stay, expanding the sample to obtain a heterogeneous X-ray image of the population of residential buildings in the Murcia region, since it was necessary to participate with only one.
In these eleven residences, of which one was public and ten were private, studied a total of 1046 usersData collection will take place between May and June of 2024, so outbreaks detected but not reported to public health authorities will be contained during this period.
Shockingly, after it was revealed that four of the eleven centers studied were harboring outbreaks of Covid, acute respiratory infection, scabies and dermatitis, the study found that 72.7% of residences had a person responsible for outbreak control and communication.. In addition, 72.7% of centers also had a written protocol for managing gastrointestinal outbreaks, and 81.8% had a written protocol for managing respiratory outbreaks.
Detected infections
Most infections identified during research work in residential buildings were skin, respiratory and urinary tract infections. However, only a quarter of long-term care centers had written treatment guidelines for wounds or soft tissue infections and nearly half for respiratory infections.
The authors report that in 9.1% of dormitories, care is provided to users by primary health care personnel assigned to the center, while in 27.3% it is provided by medical personnel employed by the center, and in 63.6% care is provided by both. In addition, in 54.6% residences studied no medical coordinating body and 40% of those who said they had it had employees from outside the center.
Another aspect that experts say could be improved is the dissemination and use of regional protocols for action against scabies and the prevention and control of outbreaks of respiratory infections, “which will improve reporting and allow for shorter chains of transmission and faster implementation of control measures.” .
Skin and urinary tract infections (most common)
The results obtained by the HALT 2023-2024 project in the Murcia region and which have just been published show that the prevalence of healthcare-associated infections in long-term residential settings in the Community is high compared to European results and national results from previous studies.
At the same time, in the region 10.3% of users of these residential centers contracted infections. of this type, compared with 8.5% on the national average and 3.7% on the European average, according to the results obtained in the third edition of the international study.
Thus, the percentage of residents with at least one health-related infection of the total population in the study was 10.3%, representing a total of 107 residents and one more with two concurrent infections.
The most common type of infection was skin (38.9% of the total); they are followed by urinary tract infections and respiratory tract infections (25.9% each, respectively).
As for the percentage of residents receiving antimicrobials (medicines used to prevent and treat infections), it was 5.2%.
Vaccination
The study, carried out by the epidemiological service of the Murcia region, also analyzed the estimated percentage of residents vaccinated against influenza in the 2023-2024 season, which was 98%. However, vaccination against this virus among personnel was 22.5%.
In the case of Covid, the vaccination schedule was very similar to the flu vaccination schedule. Among residents it reached 97%, and among workers – 27%, which shows that we must push for larger employee campaignssince during the covid pandemic it turned out that these were one of the main ways the virus entered the centers. The authors note that “the data are intended to identify needs for intervention and infection control.”