Full Text of HR0221 98th General Assembly
HR0221 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, A family of drug-resistant bacteria, that experts | 3 | | say kills up to 50% of people infected, is spreading in Chicago | 4 | | and elsewhere, prompting doctors and public health officials to | 5 | | step up efforts to protect patients; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, Infections caused by these germs - called | 7 | | carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, or CRE - are still | 8 | | rare, but are difficult and sometimes impossible to treat; no | 9 | | one knows the exact number of CRE infections or deaths in | 10 | | Illinois or nationwide, though the federal Centers for Disease | 11 | | Control and prevention is working on a report that would | 12 | | compile those statistics for the first time; and
| 13 | | WHEREAS, The Centers for Disease Control says an increasing | 14 | | percentage of germs in the entero-bacteriaceae family are | 15 | | becoming resistant to the carbapenems antibiotics used as a | 16 | | last-resort treatment for seriously-ill people; and
| 17 | | WHEREAS, A decade ago, 1% of these bacteria were resistant; | 18 | | now 4% are resistant, while one type has increased from 2% to | 19 | | 10%; in all, more than 70 kinds of bacteria have developed | 20 | | carbapenem resistance; and
| 21 | | WHEREAS, CRE are spread by unclean hands, but medical |
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| 1 | | devices, such as ventilators or catheters, increase the risk of | 2 | | life-threatening infection, because they can introduce new | 3 | | bacteria into the blood stream; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, CRE have high mortality rates and kill up to half | 5 | | of the people who get serious infections with them; CRE can | 6 | | also spread their resistance to other bacteria; and | 7 | | WHEREAS, Information about the number of CRE infections is | 8 | | scarce, in part because only 6 states require health facilities | 9 | | to report cases; the Centers for Disease Control has tracked | 10 | | CRE from a single health care facility in 2001 to health care | 11 | | facilities in at least 42 states; therefore, be it
| 12 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 13 | | NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 14 | | we state our intent to raise public awareness about the | 15 | | antibiotic-resistant CRE germ that is becoming a growing threat | 16 | | to health facilities in the State of Illinois and urge the | 17 | | citizens of this State to become informed about this emerging | 18 | | risk; and be it further
| 19 | | RESOLVED, That we urge health facilities across the State | 20 | | to promote proper hand washing by health care workers, remove | 21 | | medical devices such as catheters as soon as possible, isolate | 22 | | patients who are infected or carry the bacteria, and make sure |
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| 1 | | that health workers are using protective gloves and gowns when | 2 | | touching patients with CRE; and be it further | 3 | | RESOLVED, That we further urge health facilities to employ | 4 | | a "detect and protect" strategy, which involves identifying the | 5 | | presence of the organism and protecting other patients to | 6 | | prevent its spread.
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