MRSA

[PapaBear]

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, or MRSA, is in the news so use caution. Practice good hygeine habits and wash your hands frequently. Be careful of the people you contact.

From medspace.com:

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the most common resistant organisms. Risk factors for developing an MRSA infection include:

Older age

Exposure to other patients with MRSA

Hospitalization (especially in an intensive care unit)

Invasive procedures

hospital stays

Prior and prolonged antibiotic therapy

Presence of a wound

Presence of intravenous lines, catheters, or endotracheal tubes

The most common sites of MRSA colonization are wounds, the nasopharynx, and the perineum. In the hospital setting, about a third of colonized patients develop an actual infection, often pneumonia and/or septicemia. In long-term facilities, more patients are colonized with MRSA, but a lower percentage develops invasive infections. The most important factors in avoiding the spread of MRSA are hand washing and glove use. Individuals with MRSA should be isolated, although groups of MRSA-colonized patients can be housed together, especially in long-term facilities.
MRSA is very difficult to eradicate when it becomes endemic in a facility, and prolonged antibiotic use actually tends to promote the emergence of resistance. A major issue concerning MRSA involves guidelines for the transfer of MRSA-colonized patients to long term care facilities. Requirements that patients be treated to the point of MRSA eradication are unnecessary and actually counterproductive, because prolonged antibiotic treatment for this purpose causes greatly prolonged lengths of stay in the hospital with increased costs. It also promotes the emergence of resistant strains and can result in adverse effects from the antibiotics. Individuals with symptomatic infections from MRSA might benefit from treatment, generally using vancomycin. However, vancomycin-resistant or vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus (VISA) strains have emerged sporadically, which could become a major public health problem in the future. Two new antibiotics, linezolid and quinupristin/dalfopristin, have been developed that can be useful for combating VISA; they should be reserved for the most serious infections of this type to try to delay the emergence of resistance to these drugs.

From Webmd.com

What are the symptoms of MRSA?

Symptoms of a MRSA infection depend on where the infection is. If MRSA is causing an infection in a wound, that area of your skin may be red or tender. If you have pneumonia, you may develop a cough.
Community-based MRSA commonly causes skin infections, such as boils, abscesses, or cellulitis. Often, people think they have been bitten by a spider or insect. Because MRSA infections can become serious in a short amount of time, it is important to see your doctor right away if you notice a boil or other skin problem.

How is an infection diagnosed?

If your doctor thinks that you are infected with MRSA, he or she will send a sample of your infected wound, blood, or urine to a lab. The lab will grow the bacteria and then test to see which kinds of antibiotics kill the bacteria. This test may take several days.

You may also be tested if your doctor suspects that you are a MRSA carrier-a person who has the bacteria on his or her skin but who is not sick. This is done by taking a swab from the inside of the nose.

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/m...-mrsa-overview

[Willowdared]

One of my co-worker's hubby went thru 2 bouts of Mersa a while back...nasty stuff.

[Ducky]

It's already crept this way, schools are being professionally (think HAZMAT) cleaned in an effort to halt the spread.

[Terminator]

Their's been an outbreak sure, but the media has turned this into a scare tactic. We need to be educating people, not scaring them into their houses for the rest of their lives. MRSA is not new, it's just another illness like the Asian Bird Flu and every other thing I have yet to get. When I think of this, I think of the Gov't and it's retarded terror alert meter.

[countybear]

Be careful of the people you contact.

Oh, yeah... we'll just see how that works out for us.

"Dispatch, this is Deputy Monk, I'll only be dealing with criminals who wash regularly from now on. Thanks...

[jrae]

My Med/Surg nursing class discussed MRSA for the material from my last exam. MRSA is a big deal. Most people have been exposed to it. Most people in the health care profession are carriers. In my opinion, it would be rare to meet someone in the profession that does not carry it.

Infection control is the key. We need to be educating people how to properly wash their hands. This may sound stupid to some, but there are many out there that do not wash their hands correctly.

When being hired at my hospital, the infection control staff gives a lecture on handwashing. They use a lotion you are supposed to wash your hands with. The germs are only detected by a black light. When putting your hands under the black light, it shows the problem areas where germs are often missed when you wash your hands.

When we teach people to do it correctly, we teach them to sing the happy birthday song to themselves. The length of the song is the correct amount of time it takes to be considered "clean."

[lynnz05]

We've had a few in our establishment with that.

[MacLean]

MRSA is a big deal.

Nod, it is.

I wrote an article on it with some facts on how many are carriers, etc.

Nasty shit.

[jrae]

Nod, it is.

I wrote an article on it with some facts on how many are carriers, etc.

Nasty shit.

you should post your article

[MacLean]

Reca has it for the new front page.

See if he'll give it to you for critique. You are probably learning more about it than we are.

[Willowdared]

Nod, it is.

I wrote an article on it with some facts on how many are carriers, etc.

Nasty shit.

The guy I know that got it is a cop. He thought it was a spider bite that got infected. His was treatable, but then he got it again. He ended up in the hospital for a little while. They ended up doing some serious disinfecting of all their bedding, and steam cleaning the carpets and furniture.

My former Mother-in-Law is a retired nurse, and the doctor she worked for predicted we would have serious problems with "super-bugs" 30 years ago, with our over-fondness for antibiotics. We've compounded the problem with antibacterial "everything."

[jrae]

My sister actually had MRSA. She had a cut on her leg, and it developed a hard knot around it. It was very sensitive to touch. She was very sick. She had to see a doctor for about a month. Now, she has to be extremely careful when she gets a suspected infection.

[MacLean]

I think we've compounded the problem a different way.

There is no money in antibiotic research any more, everyone is trying to kill AIDS or whatever the cause du jour is.

The companies stopped developing new antibiotics when other things distracted them, and are only now directing focus there again.

There are several antibiotics that will kill MRSA, but eventually another bug will evolve.

[jrae]

The problem with antibiotics is that they are over prescribed. When people go to the doctor, they expect to be given an antibiotic even when they do not need one. By taking these antibiotics, the body develops immuntiies to the strains of bacteria. We all had better be careful because we are putting ourselves in danger. What happens when our bodies no longer respond to antibiotics?????


The answer is that we will all be veryyyyyyyy sick with not way of fighting the infection.


So back to my point.........HANDWASHING AND INFECTION CONTROL IS THE KEY.

SING HAPPY BIRTHDAY WHILE YOU WASH YOUR HANDS.....


On another note...just f.y.i. several kinds of hepatitis are spread by the fecal-oral route. This means people need to wash their hands after using the bathroom and before handling foods, etc.

[Willowdared]

I think we've compounded the problem a different way.

There is no money in antibiotic research any more, everyone is trying to kill AIDS or whatever the cause du jour is.

The companies stopped developing new antibiotics when other things distracted them, and are only now directing focus there again.

There are several antibiotics that will kill MRSA, but eventually another bug will evolve.

They've stopped making basic vaccines too. We are down to only one US manufacturer of the Tetanus vaccine, and pre-Katrina, we were already in a shortage.

[MacLean]

They've stopped making basic vaccines too. We are down to only one US manufacturer of the Tetanus vaccine, and pre-Katrina, we were already in a shortage.

Nod.

jrae made her point about overuse of antibiotics, and I won't disagree with her.

I still think we should be able to adapt faster than the bugs.

[countybear]

several kinds of hepatitis are spread by the fecal-oral route

Are you getting this Conalabu? Stop kissing so much ass or you'll turn yellow, shrivel up, and die...

[Buttercup]

The guy I know that got it is a cop. He thought it was a spider bite that got infected. His was treatable, but then he got it again. He ended up in the hospital for a little while.

The very same thing happened to a friend of mine a few weeks ago, she thought it was a spider bite as well but ended up hospitalized for a few days.

[Virginian]

This kind of stuff happens because morons believe they know better than doctors who prescribe antibiotics, and stop taking their meds before they finish the dose. This creates resistant bacteria, and screws over everyone else. Doctors don't go to school for half their lives to come out not knowing basic biology, people, so just F'n do what they tell you to do.

[Buttercup]

This kind of stuff happens because morons believe they know better than doctors who prescribe antibiotics, and stop taking their meds before they finish the dose. This creates resistant bacteria, and screws over everyone else. Doctors don't go to school for half their lives to come out not knowing basic biology, people, so just F'n do what they tell you to do.

That's true. Too often, some people start feeling better before they've finished the antibiotic course and they don't think that they need to take them any longer, so they stop. Then when they have a cold or something later, they'll start taking the antibiotics left over from the previous illness.

Unfortunately there are also doctors out there who will prescribe antibiotics because a patient demands it, even though an antibiotic will not treat a viral illness. That contributes to the problem as well.