An article in today’s Times reports on a study of invasive MSRA infections contracted in health facilities. The results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study estimates that nearly 19,000 deaths in the United States can be traced to such infections (which are resistant to front-line antibiotics) every year, and found that they are contracted in a range of health facilities beyond hospitals. The remedy is simple hygienic practices (such as washing hands — which health care professionals do with astonishing infrequency, according to the article) and better surveillance by hospitals so that performance can be benchmarked.
COLLABORATORY: VITAL SYSTEMS SECURITY
The Vital Systems Security collaboration examines how, today, security is being constituted as an object of knowledge, intervention, and political reflection. It proposes that the security of vital systems such as energy, transportation, communication and health is one norm in relationship to which security is being reproblematized. A central goal of the collaboration is to examine these issues through collective, conceptually driven inquiry that addresses rapidly developing contemporary problems.
