The impact of Alcoa Mt. Holly on Berkeley County, the Trident Region, and the remainder of South Carolina

The Alcoa Mt. Holly plant, located in Goose Creek in Berkeley County, South Carolina, generated an estimated impact of 996 jobs in Berkeley County during 2010, accounting for 2.7 percent of the county’s total employment in that year. The total impact for the Trident region, including Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties, was an estimated 2,899 jobs, over 1,700 of which were located in Charleston County. The plant, along with all economic activity associated with it, also netted county and municipal governments in Berkeley County approximately $7.3 million in revenues in that year

Epidemiology Of Antimicrobial Resistance In Bloodstream Infections

Antimicrobial resistance in bacterial pathogens is a worldwide challenge leading high morbidity and mortality in clinical settings. Multidrug resistant patterns in gram-positive and -negative bacteria have resulted in difficult-to-treat or even untreatable infections with conventional antimicrobials. Since the early identification of causative microorganisms and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns in patients with bacteremia and other serious infections is lacking in many healthcare institutions, broad spectrum antibiotics are liberally and mostly unnecessarily used. Such practice has, in turn, caused dramatic increases in emerging resistance and when coupled with poor practice of infection control, resistant bacteria can easily be disseminated to the other patients and the environment. Thus, availability of updated epidemiological data on antimicrobial resistance in frequently encountered bacterial pathogens will be useful not only for deciding on empirical treatment strategies, but also devising an effective antimicrobial stewardship program in hospitals.WoSScopu