As described in the definition of terms, a nosocomial infection is one which need not have occurred. With humans, an otherwise healthy person is admitted to the hospital or outpatient center for what is often an elective procedure, only to contract a life-threatening infection while under medical care. It is even more frightening as we learn that microbes that exist in an environment where antibiotics are constantly used are likely to develop a resistance to most of these antibiotics in use.

I recently read in my Mortality and Mortality weekly report from the CDC that we have seen the first Vancomycin resistant Staph aureus case in a New York hospital. This drug was our current last defense against this pathogenic organism and drug companies are rushing to develop new drugs to fill the void.

As described in the definition of terms, a nosocomial infection is one which need not have occurred. With humans, an otherwise healthy person is admitted to the hospital or outpatient center for what is often an elective procedure, only to contract a life-threatening infection while under medical care. It is even more frightening as we learn that microbes that exist in an environment where antibiotics are constantly used are likely to develop a resistance to most of these antibiotics in use.

Our prisons are filled with prisoners who are infected with highly resistant Tuberculosis, Traditional tests for TB which rely upon culture of a very fastidious organism can take up to 6 weeks, By the time a diagnosis is reported an individual may have infected hundreds of others. Thankfully newer DNA testing is becoming available. We will not even go near the topic of HIV infection in our prisons.

So how does all of this relate to our parrots?

For years I have asked : “Why are all of us with healthy birds waiting for our annual exam or for a grooming sitting here in the Vet’s office with obviously sick, fluffed, sneezing, eyes closed, lethargic parrots?

If you have raised human children and had a conscientious pediatrician, Sick children were ushered in by a separate door and immediately escorted to an exam room dedicated to possibly infected individuals. Children incubating mumps or chicken pox were not playing with toys in the waiting room with those children waiting for boosters.

We need to encourage, demand! that our Veterinarians follow the same disease control procedures that human doctors do. Birds showing symptoms of disease should be screened by trained office professionals who should be able to direct the owner to a separate entrance and a separate exam room which is disinfected with the most powerful disinfectants available.

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