MRSA Notes

You never think you are going to be in an emergency - we all know we should be prepared, but are you? During the nightmare that was Hurricane Katrina a couple of years ago, we had all manners of people having to walk for their lives chest deep in filthy bacteria-laden waters. What [...]

One hospital in the UK is using sterile honey and seaweed to prevent MRSA infections in wounds. The honey is directly applied to the wound to seal it, and the seaweed solution is in the dressings and is purported to pull the infection away from the wound.

Doctors at the James Cook University Hospital in [...]

Another personal story from our forum - so many of these are just the same. If any of this rings a bell, and you haven’t been properly diagnosed, please find another doctor. And please feel free to join us in the MRSA Forum. Image from UC-SF.

It all started about 3 years ago, [...]

The Washington Times begins its article about HA-MRSA awareness with a bang:

The family thought about suing the hospital, but Maureen Daly said it was not possible because infection was listed as a risk that the family accepted in authorizing Mrs. Daly’s surgery. It is a common predicament faced by those contemplating litigation.
[...]

This is a good basic video about the basics of MRSA and more importantly, the basics of prevention. Pay special attention to the examples of the types of wounds that you should always keep your eye out for on yourself and your children. Knowledge is your friend when dealing with MRSA, it can buy you [...]

This is taken from a post on the MRSA YahooGroup - reprinted with permission from the author, Bryan, age 30 in Southern, CA. Take his story and advice and apply it to your own situation:
I had an MRSA infection on my leg just above my knee that was misdiagnosed as a spider bite at first [...]

Our esteemed and beloved editor has put up a great round up on what has been going on in the b5media Science & Health channel over the last couple of weeks. We really have all sorts of the most interesting topics over here - many of you might be very interested in Diabetes and [...]

The newest tool in the fight against bad bugs, viruses and other nasty critters is this Nano-UV Portable Disinfection Light. UV light is a widely used and accepted form of disinfection, but this is very new to have it in use in such a portable way. This is what they say about it:

Proven [...]

Here you will find a video from Harlingen, TX Channel 4, about “Mary” and her plastic surgery nightmare - a wound that woudn’t close and the ensuing bladder infection that finally exposed the problem - MRSA. If you have a wound that isn’t acting right, get it checked out. The doctor in “Mary’s” [...]

I received this in an email last week, and it is an eloquent plea from a concerned person (presumably from the UK) for the hospitals to do some basic things that could well help prevent the spread of HA-MRSA in hospitals. I totally agree with him - there are so many small things that [...]

I think the most important thing is that I can’t remember the last time I saw a staph infection that wasn’t MRSA

-Dr. Gal Mayer, medical director at the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center
Just like in the general populus, MRSA is growing rapidly amongst gay men in NYC. Gay City News has a very good article [...]

I hate to hear this, but some folk’s favorite remedy for MRSA/Staph boils - tea tree oil (aka melaleuca oil) - has been proven to cause antibiotic resistance. What this means for you is that if tea tree oil has been doing a bang up job healing your infections, it won’t last forever. [...]

The International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID), the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), The European Commission, and the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe have come together to convene the world’s most renowned scientists, health care workers and leaders in emerging infectious diseases at the [...]

Councilman Tony Trout has a most eye opening post on his blog about MRSA in their local jail. The council asked the Greenville County Jail, “How many MRSA cases do we have?” and in response received a Power Point presentation about MRSA, and a whole lotta hooey. The response?

County Administrator Joe Kernell stated [...]

In a study released in December, but being widely discussed this week, researchers from the University of Arizona swabbed the offices and personal items of 59 women and 54 men in several large cities for various germs, including MRSA.
The top 3 germiest places in the office for women were:

Makeup cases

Phones

Purses

And for men:

Wallets (the number [...]

I have been shopping like a crazy maniac for a week now - and one of my stops was to Amazon’s new shoe and handbag store at endless.com. I got this cutie pair of sandals:

 
“Christina, what on EARTH does this have to do with MRSA?” you might ask.
Alternative therapy, Infection Prevention, MRSAShare This

If you have heard the term MSSA in your MRSA research and didn’t know what it meant, I ran into a little article today that explains it very simply.

MSSA stands for Methicillin-Sensitive Staphylococcus aureus and refers to all of the antibiotic-sensitive strains of Staph aureus, a common bacteria that can cause a wide variety [...]

I have had a reader ask me if anyone has a referral for a specialist in Infectious Disease in the Springfield, Ohio area. If you know of one, please leave the information in the comments, or email me at christina@b5media.com, and I will get the information to the correct person. Thanks so much [...]

Over the last couple of years, Pennsylvania has had a terrible problem with HA-MRSA, as you can see from my archives on MRSA in Pennsylvania. The infection rate has dropped an astonishing 70% since employing more rigid prevention tactics. They are swabbing all patients for MRSA at admission and discharge, and putting those [...]

Researchers have been looking for specific risk factors for CA-MRSA, meaning that they are looking at lifestyle, locations and any activities that have been done by CA-MRSA patients that could be the basis for their infections. They have found none.

“What this means”, says Dr. Miller, “is that the average Joe or Jane can [...]

This article, from the Bahama Journal, is deeply offensive and just plain wrong. The point of the article is to berate politicians who apparently are trying to get Princess Margaret Hospital to clean up their act (more specifically their dialysis unit), and are blaming MRSA infections on the hospital’s cleanliness.

Regrettably, some politicians and one [...]

One of my long time readers, and a phage therapy advocate, sent me the link to this wonderful video about the state of phage therapy, and how it works. Phage therapy was used before the widespread use of antibiotics, and is only practiced in a few clinics in the world, and none in the [...]

I have a reader who has had recurrent problems with MRSA in her sinuses who needs to find a new doctor in Toronto - a referral to a good Infectious Disease specialist would be excellent. I know there are lots of Toronto folks around here these days, since this is the home of b5media, [...]

I think this is a really interesting story - The Portsmouth Hospital NHS Trust in the UK has apparently been awarded as a Top 40 hospital for their outstanding quality in 2006.
Well, Doug Knight would like to give you the proverbial “rest of the story.” He says:

It makes my blood boil that [...]

I am so sad to report that 12 yr old Carlos Don lost his battle with MRSA septicemia in the early hours of Sunday morning. My heart breaks for his family.

Carlos’s family said two weeks ago, he was at Camp Cuyamaca with 200 other Ramona sixth-graders when he came home very sick. Officials [...]

As I mentioned pretty briefly last October, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) set new guidelines last year for infection control. One of the suggestions that they made (I say suggestions, because they are unfortunately not regulations that must be adhered to), is that patients use Chlorhexidine Gluconate (CHG) one day prior to surgery. [...]