Why Does Norway’s Program Work?
• Norwegian doctors prescribe fewer antibiotics than any other nation. This prevents the bacteria from being able to mutate into mutant forms like MRSI. • All patients with MRSI are isolated. Medical staff members who test positive for MRSI are not permitted to work • Every patient with an MRSI infection is careful monitored by its individual strain. This permits spread of MRSI within a hospital to be promptly detected and the causes of spread can be uncovered so that the same mistake does not get repeated in the future. Norwegians have learned that colds and coughing are properly managed without antibiotics. Symptoms are treated without using antibiotics. Workers are paid on days they stay home with illnesses. Drug makers are not allowed to advertise which decreases patient pressure for antibiotic prescriptions. Penicillin is no longer a cough medicine. Less than 1 % of health care providers are carriers of MRSI. Staphlococci. These days nearly every case of MRSI seen in Norway involv
