愛知医科大学英語2013年第3問
When hospitals want to make a name for themselves, they spend on reputations and technology on the esteemed surgeon or the top-of-the-line gamma knife and the star radiologist to operate lt. Such investments attract publicity as well as patients $\fbox{16}$【(1) looking (2) providing (3) seeking】 the best available health care. Lately, though, some hospitals have been making an $\fbox{17}$ 【(1) uncompounded (2) undertaken (3) unexpected】 discovery. The kinds of expenditures that truly improve patient care $\fbox{18}$【(1) are (2) come (3) comes (4) is】 often not directed at the top of their pay scale, with the famous specialists, but rather at the bottom, with the $\fbox{19}$【(1) anonymous (2) infamous (3) unanimous】 janitors.
Hospitals have reached this realization while trying to cope with an alarming trend. Over the past decade the organisms that cause most infections in $\fbox{20}$【(1) hospitalized (2) hospitalizing (3) prevented (4) preventing】 patients have become more difficult to treat. One reason is increasing drug resistance; some infections now respond to only one or two drugs in the vast armamentarium of antibiotics. But the problem also arises because the cast of organisms has changed.
Just a few years ago the poster bug for nasty bacteria that $\fbox{21}$【(1) activate (2) attack (3) support (4) treat】 patients in hospitals was MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Because MRSA clings to the skin, the chief strategy for limiting its spread was $\fbox{22}$ 【(1) careless (2) modest (3) thorough】 hand washing. Now, however, the most dangerous bacteria are the ones that $\fbox{23}$【(1) supply (2) survive (3) vanish (4) vary】 on inorganic surfaces such as keyboards, bed rails and privacy curtains. To get rid of these germs, hospitals must rely on the staff members who know every nook and cranny in each room, as well as which cleaning products contain $\fbox{24}$【(1) that (2) when (3) where (4) which】 chemical compounds.
“Hand hygiene is very, very important,” says Michael Phillips, a hospital epidemiologist at New York University Langone Medical Center who has been studying this problem. “But we are $\fbox{25}$【(1) becoming (2) coming (3) returning (4) visiting】 to understand that it is one of just several important interventions necessary to break the chain of infection that threatens our patients.”
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(注)
- janitor:清掃作業員
- MRSA:メチシリン耐性黄色ブドウ球菌