02/10/2010: World MRSA Day 2010 Theme, ‘The MRSA Epidemic – A Call to Action’

Kick-off Event – Oct. 1st at Loyola University Chicago, Illinois – 10:00am – Press Conference, 10:30am – Main Event
Advocates are calling on world leaders and health organisations to commit to taking immediate action in healthcare facilities, to educate the public and to initiate in healthcare facilities a pro-active approach to eradicate MRSA by using the evidence-based method of active detection and isolation.
Here in the UK Kings College Hospital are holding an awareness day and have invited
MRSA Action UK to participate following on from the Infection Control Study Day held in April. Every day is infection awareness day, but October 2 has been chosen to think about MRSA as this was the date it was discovered by Professor Patricia Jevons under a microscope at Colindale Laboratories, London in 1961.
The first outbreak followed in 1962 in a Surrey hospital, and it was not long before MRSA was seen around the world. Healthcare professionals have battled to try to contain the spread of MRSA ever since. MRSA Action UK is joining Jeanine Thomas, the leading patient advocate in the USA who founded MRSA Survivors Network and is holding the second World MRSA Day event on 1st October 2010.
Everyone who is fighting to reduce these infections, including NHS staff, regulators and patient groups all agree a joined up approach is needed. MRSA Action UK and Jeanine Thomas from MRSA Survivors Network know a combined approach from governments around the world is needed to defeat the pandemic we are witnessing. We hope World MRSA Day will act as a catalyst to this happening. It is only by working together that we can defeat avoidable healthcare infections in all medical facilities; we hope everyone will play their part during October to raise awareness.