Solution to killer superbug found in Norway

AP/Yahoo News, December 31, 2009

Aker University Hospital in Norway has no sign of a dangerous and contagious staph infection that killed tens of thousands of patients in the most sophisticated hospitals of Europe, North America and Asia this year. Twenty-five years ago, Norwegians were also losing their lives to the bacteria. But Norway's public health system fought back with a program that made it the most infection-free country in the world. A key part of that program was cutting back severely on the use of antibiotics. Now new studies from around the world prove that Norway's model can be replicated with extraordinary success, and public health experts are saying these deaths—19,000 in the U.S. each year alone—are unnecessary, the Associated Press reports.