MRSA Notes

Oh boy - the more I read, the more info I get - apparently over the weekend, 6 more people joined the MRSA lawsuit in New Jersey, bringing the total number of people on the prosecution side to twelve. Good luck to you all.
The lawsuits allege that the county failed to properly inform its [...]

Two more people have joined the MRSA lawsuit against a New Jersey prision:
In separate lawsuits made public on Thursday, Philadelphia resident Robert Motley and Victor DelPiano of Atlantic County, said they began exhibiting signs of staph infection shortly after being locked up on unspecified charges.
The lawsuit alleges that the county failed to properly inform its [...]

Well, this is to be expected - and the hospitals should be expecting it too. It is time to clean up!! Jewish Hospital in Louisville, KY attracted nearly 70 people in protest who have been affected by MRSA believed to come from unsanitary hospital conditions. As is their typical reaction:

The hospital denies [...]

A new, rapid test for Staphylococcal infection and colonization for mothers in labor has now become available from Cepheid. Staph is the number one cause of early onset infection in newborns, and prior to this, mothers were tested before childbirth, but the tests had to be sent to the lab with a turn around [...]

And boy was it eye opening! ABC found all sorts of bacteria, including the one we are most concerned about here at MRSA Notes all over the gym. Guess where the worst place was? The shower floor. Wear those shower shoes, without fail! Also in the gym find lots of [...]

Admittedly, this is a little beyond my understanding, but there is lots of research being done now on Staphylococcal enterotoxins, and this is a short article about one of them:
While scientists understand how many other invaders activate T cells to mount an immune response – through a cascade of biochemical signals that begin with them [...]

Nina Planck has written a book exposing the dangers of “industrial” foods and the benefits of natural, whole foods. I truly believe that keeping your body in tip-top shape is very important so that your immune system is prepared to tackle whatever challenges come your way. Please let me know if you have [...]

After two players have been sidelined due to Staph infections, the Toronto Blue Jays have been forced to do a cleanup of their clubhouse. The Blue Jays spokesman and manager seem to differ a bit on where the infections were acquired:

Blue Jays spokesman Jay Stenhouse said the “clubhouse was absolutely not the source of [...]

I am off for a much needed vacation, and I will be gone to the beach from now through next weekend, so if you stumble across MRSA Notes in the next week, please do bookmark me, or subscribe to the feed or subscribe to the email updates so you won’t miss a thing when I [...]

A survey of youth between the ages of 8 and 18 who were asked a variety of questions to test their knowledge of bacteria, viruses and prevention options came up with some interesting results:
A little under two in 10 youth say it is extremely or very likely that they or their friends could catch [...]

There was a study done in Ireland recently on the bacteria lurking in our refrigerators with some interesting results. Valerie Jackson, who holds a PhD in Microbiology and is a surveillance scientist with the Health Protection Surveillance Centre in Dublin discovered that our fridges are an important source of disease causing organisms. Dr. [...]

Australia’s National Prescribing Service (NPR) has begun a new countrywide campaign to educate its citizens about the differences between colds, viruses and bacterial infections and the uses of antibiotics in treating them. At their main program page there are downloads, an interactive storybook, mp3 radio advertisements and best of all, lots of good information. [...]

 
This could be great news for all parents who have dealt with chronic Otitis Media in their children. In a groundbreaking study, a biofilm with antibiotic resistant bacteria has been found in the middle ears of 46 out of 50 children with the chronic ear infections. What this means basically is that all [...]

Country singer LeAnn Rimes had surgery today for an unidentified infection in her leg. I was unable to find out anything about the type of infection, but did find that she has a history of eczema, which can certainly make for many places for infection to enter her body. Keep LeAnn in your [...]

This article on cellulitis at Yahoo! Kids Health is a good general reference. Basically, cellulitis is a bacterial infection that has entered the body through a break in the skin. The symptoms are a painful area of inflammation on the skin, with redness and is warm to the touch. As the infection [...]

Via GreenvilleOnline.com:
Complaints about infections causing open sores among more than 30 prisoners and officers at the Greenville County jail prompted a federal judge to order an inspection by a doctor at the request of two lawyers investigating conditions there.
Prisoners and officers have reported sores on their hands, feet, scalp, back and face and some of [...]

No kidding. I think it is almost common knowledge that a huge amount of hospital infection comes from the use of urinary catheters, so it only makes sense that they would finally do a study on this. So now, researchers from the University of Michigan Health System and the VA hospitals in Seattle [...]

Sangamon County officials may have to face a large medical bill now that a jail inmate has had surgery to remove an infected abscess in his neck.

The county doesn’t know how much the final bill might be, but the cost of postoperative antibiotics alone could be more than 15 thousand dollars if the county doesn’t [...]

I received this via email from my dear friend - and although I don’t know exactly where it originated, I found it also, researched and reported on, at Snopes.com. Just a little something to think about when trying to banish bacteria from your life:
Bacteria on Purses
A study was performed on women’s purses. A health [...]

It is especially sad when your child gets MRSA. I thought it was heartbreaking to see my husband go through this - I cannot fathom what it would be like to see my child go through it. Both of my children on occasion get staphylococcal skin infections, but luckily, we haven’t been [...]

Here is the happy story of Tarka, a dog owned by Terry Salisbury of the UK, who contracted MRSA after emergency surgery for gastric tortion. Tarka was not recovering as her owner had hoped, and a week or so later was diagnosed with MRSA. Through excellent wound care and antibiotics, Tarka has now [...]

This article from ABS-CBN Interactive, points out a variety of bacterial food-borne infections that are possible to acquire and how to recognize them. For our intents and purposes, this is the section about food poisoning via Staphylococcal enterotoxins:
Staphyloenterotoxicosis, as cited in Azanza’s study, is a type of food poisoning characterized by severe nausea, abdominal [...]

As a distinct contradiction to the last post, an infectious disease specialist in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Dr. John D. Goldman says that he is seeing more MRSA in his community than ever before. I, too, have noticed a mighty lot of people from New England as a whole with MRSA in our forums and that [...]

In Azle, TX, a small town, northwest of Dallas/Fort Worth, Harris Methodist Northwest Hospital has been proactive in their community in teaching its residents about MRSA and how to avoid it.
In January 2005, the hospital decided it was time to do something to prevent or reduce the cases of MRSA.
Ingle says hand cleanliness [...]