Infections Due To Long Fingernails

Effective September 1st, hospitals in Cincinnati have banned nurses from having long fingernails due to infections from bacteria according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Also,

A national hygiene task force found that artificial nails pose a higher infection risk than natural fingernails. In rare cases, the risk can be fatal.

In response, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

. . . issued new guidelines to improve hand hygiene in health care settings. The CDC estimates that up to 2 million infections occur each year in hospital patients, and that about 90,000 of these patients die as a result of their infections. The CDC reports that fully half of those infections could be prevented by proper hand hygiene.

OK, let's do the math. 90,000 divided by 365 equals about 246 people per day are dying due to bacterial infections. That's astonishing and, it is more than twice the rate of death due to traffic accidents which, last I checked, is around 40,000 individuals per year.

It sure seems like the 90,000 deaths may be indicative of some kind of problem other than failure to follow hand washing guidelines. Also, I can now confess that I strongly dislike hospitals. I read somewhere that, other than catastrophic events, more people get sick and die because they went to a hospital. Therefore, your chances of a long and healthy life are significantly enhanced by avoiding hospitals at all cost.