October 21, 2007

• MRSA

  I am sure many if not all of you have heard about the “superbug” that is spreading around the nation? What are your thoughts on it?

  It is called Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA. It is a type of staph infection.

  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently calculated that MRSA is responsible for 94,000 serious infections and nearly 19,000 deaths per year in the United States. These numbers would make MRSA responsible for more deaths each year than AIDS

  While regular ‘staph’ infections are usually easily treated with cephalosporin antibiotics that are related to penicillin, like Keflex, Duricef, and Ancef, the MRSA bacteria has developed a resistance to these antibiotics, so that they don’t work anymore.

  It is estimated that 25% to 30% of people have the staph bacteria either on their skin or in their nose, althought it doesn’t necessarily cause an infection unless there is a break in the skin, like from an insect bite or scratch. Unless they have an infection, these people are simply ‘colonized’ with ‘staph’ and don’t necessarily need treatment.

  Although usually thought of as a ‘nosocomial’ infection or one that is spread among people in the hospital or a nursing home, etc., MRSA infections are becoming increasingly more common in healthy people who have not been in the hospital (community acquired infections).

  There have also been reports of outbreaks ‘among participants in competitive sports,’ including fencers, football players and wrestlers. These outbreaks may be because athletes have many risk factors for infection, including ‘physical contact, skin damage, and sharing of equipment or clothing.’

  There are some thinks that are used to treat it. MRSA bacteria will also develop resistance to these antibiotics and then no treatments will work. There are already reports of VRSA or Vancomycin Resistant Stapylococcus aureus.

  MSRA can cause skin infections. It also can sometimes cause sometimes-deadly pneumoniapneumonia or blood infections.

  There are two major ways people become infected with MRSA. The first is physical contact with someone who is either infected or is a carrier (people who are not infected but are colonized with the bacteria on their body) of MRSA. The second way is for people to physically contact MRSA on any objects such as door handles, floors, sinks, or towels that have been touched by an MRSA-infected person or carrier. Normal skin tissue in people usually does not allow MRSA infection to develop; however, if there are cuts, abrasions, or other skin flaws such as psoriasis (chronic skin disease with dry patches, redness, and scaly skin), MRSA may proliferate. Many otherwise healthy individuals, especially children and young adults, do not notice small skin imperfections or scrapes and may be lax in taking precautions about skin contacts. This is the likely reason MRSA outbreaks occur in diverse types of people such as school team players (like football players or wrestlers), dormitory residents, and armed-services personnel in constant close contact.

  People with higher risk of MRSA infection are those with obvious skin breaks (surgical patients, hospital patients with intravenous lines, burns, or skin ulcers) and patients with depressed immune systems (infants, elderly, or HIV-infected individuals) or chronic diseases (diabetes or cancer). Patients with pneumonia (lung infection) due to MRSA can transmit MRSA by airborne droplets

  For MRSA the mortality rate is estimated to be between 4%-10%.

  Doctors are very worried about what the future holds for MRSA.

  The number of reports of MRSA infections rises year by year – and the latest evidence suggests that deaths due to MRSA are increasing at a similar rate.

  Already, the spectre of a bug resistant to all antibiotics is approaching.

  VRSA, or vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, has acquired resistance to a drug considered the “last line of defence” when all other antibiotics have failed.

  Does MRSA scare you?

  • 5:32 pm
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