MRSA Notes

You probably know by now what a proponent I am for Hibiclens.  Hibiclens is available at your local drugstores in the first aid section, and is available in larger sizes for a significant savings at drugstore.com.
Hibiclens(R) Survey Shows Initial Treatment for MRSA Varies Widely in Community Settings: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
NORCROSS, Ga., Feb. [...]

This is serious stuff, folks.  I can’t stress enough to not use plumbed pedicure tubs.  Plain tubs with no moving water or bubbles should be fine, as long as they are properly sanitized, but plumbed tubs are not.  Be careful in your whirlpool tubs at home too.  Clean them with a heavy bleach solution running [...]

This from the UK, interesting stuff.  How often do they wash those things anyway?? Hmm…
Privacy Curtains Proven Source Of MRSA Contamination
[…]at long last there is hard medical evidence to show that the privacy curtains surrounding patients’ bed are an important but overlooked source of outbreaks. The Department of Microbiology at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth hospital [...]

There is so much interesting (and easy to understand) information in this basic article on MRSA from The Berkeley Science Review that I don’t really know where to start. Go read it, it is interesting.
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Interesting information about research on MRSA patients in Sweden:
MRSA in Sweden: A quarter of cases infected abroad
A quarter of all people with MRSA in Sweden between 2000 and 2003 were infected abroad. A study published today in the open access journal BMC Infectious Diseases reveals that the number of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections [...]

From the Hudson Valley News
Two inmates at the Orange County Jail in Goshen have developed the MRSA staff [sic] infection. The cases are not related, said Sheriff’s Office Captain Dennis Barry, who said the men are being treated with antibiotics.
The skin rash can be contracted through close physical contact, through touching towels, sheets, clothing, and [...]

The Dallas County Dep’t. of Health and Human Services is working on getting some new guidelines up quickly to help combat the infection problems in the pedicure baths of nail salons. They have also issued some guidelines for clients to be sure to follow. Those of us who are aware of MRSA are [...]

I have reported about this group before, but they have issued a new statement:
George C. Denniston, MD, MPH, the president of DOC said, “This emerging disease poses an immediate threat to anyone with an open wound.” He went on, “We urge parents to avoid having their son circumcised, an elective medically-unnecessary non-therapeutic operation, and call [...]

Don’t forget about our chat tonight, 10 pm Eastern time in our chat room!
My modem crashed at the end of last week, so I wanted to apologize for not keeping up with the news, or very much in the MRSA forum either. My email was also down, so I have a boatload of emails [...]

From The Galveston Daily News:
Impetigo is a common and highly contagious skin infection caused by two types of bacteria, streptococcus or staphylococcus. The bacteria enter the skin through scratches, small cuts or insect bites. Anyone can get impetigo, but it normally occurs in young children. It may affect the skin anywhere on the body, but [...]

From Reuters:
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - There is a risk of microbial contamination of preservative-free eye drops in multiple application containers, warn doctors in a report in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.
“Contamination of eye drops may be related to the design of multiple application containers,” Dr. M. Q. Rahman, of Tennent Institute of Ophthalmology, Glasgow, [...]

From acs.org:
The natural product vancomycin is an antibiotic of last resort, used when other antibacterial agents aren’t effective. But some bacteria have developed resistance to vancomycin. Researchers have now designed and synthesized a revamped form of vancomycin that makes such resistance futile, or at least a lot more difficult.
Bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, a cause [...]

This article is about Bryan Dietrich, an MRSA victim who has opened an athletic equipment cleaning service. Please, all of you athletes out there, either clean your equipment yourself regularly, or get someone to do it for you! This is no longer an optional thing to do.
From mlive.com (Saginaw):
Like most athletes, Dietrich [...]

From Delaware Online:
After practice Thursday, the Archmere Academy wrestlers saw trainer Jim Malseed for a routine skin check. And before tonight’s match against Tatnall, they will see Malseed again.
That would be standard Archmere protocol under normal circumstances. But this week’s revelation that several Delaware high school wrestlers have contracted a hard-to-treat staph infection has many [...]

Article source
A freelance tattoo artist was to be arraigned today in Monterey County for allegedly practicing his craft on three minors.
Jesse Luna was arrested on suspicion of administering tattoos to three teenage girls he knew were underage, according to the Monterey County district attorney’s office.
California law prohibits anyone from tattooing or offering to tattoo anyone [...]

BELFAST, Northern Ireland, Feb. 10 (UPI) — A Northern Ireland newspaper Friday called for a ban on cell phones in hospitals due to the germs they can carry.
The Belfast Telegraph said its story about bacteria found on cell phones carried by doctors, nurses and even patients at Craigavon Area Hospital in Ulster illustrated the need [...]

News - MRSA Bloodstream Infections Occur More Frequently in HIV-Infected Patients With Low CD-4 Count: Presented at CROI
DENVER, CO — February 7, 2006 — In the first study of how methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus affects patients co-infected with human inmmunodeficiency virus in the United States, researchers were able to pinpoint individuals at risk of complicated [...]

3M Introduces New Wound Care Product
St. Paul, MN - 3M today announced the launch of 3M Tegaderm Ag Mesh Dressing with Silver, a new wound care product with fast-acting, long-lasting antimicrobial barrier effectiveness against a wide range of microbes, including antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as MRSA and VRE(a).
Versatile Tegaderm Ag Mesh Dressing is a familiar, [...]

Now, if we could only get the doctors to test for MRSA quicker!
New faster screening test for MRSA
A new screening technique for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) cuts by 75% the time taken to identify patients carrying MRSA and could be used to [...]

We bought a gym after Marshall left the hospital last year, mostly for his physical therapy, but this IS a good reason to buy one for yourself, rather than take the risk at the local gym.
Also, we don’t hear as much as we [...]

To infect, bacteria must first stick. Several proteins on their cell
wall surface are there simply to attach themselves to the surrounding
tissues of their hosts, such as the warm, moist, inviting ones at the
back of your throat.
Now new research from Sung Lee and Vincent Fischetti in
Rockefeller’s Fischetti Lab has identified an enzyme essential to
these proteins’ stickiness, [...]

ORLANDO, Fla. - The deadly bacteria always were contained to hospitals, feasting on people with weak immune systems, people already sick.
But the bacteria have left the hospitals - and they are stronger, tougher to treat. They are bringing down healthy people, young people. Athletes.
In the fall of 2000, 10 players on a Pennsylvania college football [...]

I apologize for slacking off posting this last week, Marshall was home on a week’s vacation, and that requires me to cut myself off the computer waaaaay before I am finished working!  I hope you all have been well, and on to the [...]