Letters to the Editor
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‘Spitzer To Warn “Humility” Must Accompany Power’
Reading Mr. Gershman’s report that Governor Spitzer is going to invoke Reinhold Neibuhr to explain his role in “Troopergate” made me recall how Watergate destroyed the presidency of Mr. Nixon [New York, “Spitzer To Warn ‘Humility’ Must Accompany Power,” August 7,2007].
I wonder how Mr. Nixon would have fared if he had behaved like Mr. Spitzer now?
Would all those lions and tigers and bears — Woodward, Bernstein, etc. — have backed off realizing that a small contretemps should not be used to bring down a president facing the huge problems of Vietnam and relations with China?
If anything useful comes out of the mess in Albany maybe it will be a little humility on the older folks among us who helped destroy Mr. Nixon over a “two bit” burglary he did not know about.
Dave O’Neill
New York, N.Y.
‘Saving New Yorkers’ Lives’
Regarding Monday’s article, “Saving New Yorkers’ Lives,” screening patients for superbug bacteria achieved a 90% reduction in MRSA infections in a medical intensive care unit at the University of Pittsburgh-Presbyterian Medical Center [Oped, “Saving New Yorkers’ Lives,” August6,2007].
Screening worked so well that it has now been expanded to all 15 ICUs in the hospital system. Related studies have reached similar conclusions . In 2004, researchers announced that screening has reduced MRSA infections by two-thirds at an intensive care unit at a Yale-affiliated Connecticut hospital.
Furthermore, in a nine-year study done at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and published in the fall of 2006 in Clinical Infectious Diseases, researchers found that installing dispensers of alcohol-based hand cleaners in each patient’s room had no significant impact on MRSA bacteremiarates.
A subsequent year-long hand hygiene education campaign achieved no statistically significant reduction in MRSA bacteremia. But initiating routine screening for all ICU patients and contact precautions for patients testing positive for MRSA resulted in a 75% drop in MRSA bacteria in ICUs and a 67% drop hospital-wide. Researchers called the infection reduction at Brigham and Women’s “profound.” Even the cash-strapped British National Health Service has launched MRSA testing. Screening saves lives, and hospitals that neglect to screen put their patients at greater risk of an MRSA infection.
Betsy McCaughey
Chairwoman
Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths
New York, N.Y.
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