MRSA Notes

Rhoda has started blogging over at MRSA Story, about her family’s experience with MRSA. She hasn’t been at it too long yet - it will be easy to catch up and then you definitely will want to follow the story. If you would be interested in doing the same thing, please feel free [...]

Boston.com is reporting that four Connecticut prisons have reported MRSA outbreaks in recent days: York Correctional Institution in Niantic, Bergin in Storrs and Osborn in Somers. They have notified the Department of Public Health, and we all hope they are working to keep this under control. Interestingly enough, the article reports that some inmates are [...]

In the study of MRSA, the word biofilm comes up a lot. This is the problem with the plumbed pedicure units - a biofilm forms on the pipes. Have you ever had to replace the plumbing under your kitchen sink? Surely I am not the only one. The disgusting stuff [...]

Researchers are always looking for a new way to fight off these nasty bacteria. There is a very fine line between killing bacteria that are invading your body systems, and killing your body systems themselves. Therein lies the rub.
Hot on the heels of the protein research done at the University of Missouri [...]

Dr. Joshua Perper, the Broward Co. Chief Medical examiner has released Anna Nicole Smith’s autopsy report:
From the police chief - No illegal drugs were found - nothing unusual found on hotel security video, nothing on Stern’s computer - accidental overdose with no other criminal elements present.
From Dr. Perper: Anna Nicole was suffering from a stomach [...]

Saskatchewan health officials want to warn their communities that although their infection rates are smaller than many other Canadian provinces, they are still as susceptable to MRSA as the rest of the world. Interesting as compared to the rates in Santa Clara County from earlier, Saskatchewan had 1.219 cases in 2005, which rose to [...]

This story, from MercuryNews.com, is the story of Laura Debell, a Santa Clara County Jail inmate, who, during a 2 week stay in the jail in 2005, got a small wound on her leg that let to an internal MRSA infection that traveled throughout her body and set up shop in her spine. A [...]

This may be of interest to some of you who have been through this - I know it brings back memories for Marshall and I.

“As she boarded the plane for Miami, Anna Nicole developed a painful abscess at the site of the injection,” said a source with knowledge of the case. “The needle wasn’t [...]

More details now after a little research - apparently Star Magazine and the National Enquirer have managed to get ahold of the autopsy report - bet they spent a fortune on it - but thats another story. Apparently Anna Nicole overdosed on chloral hydrate, a sleeping medication, but she was also suffering from a [...]

I have just heard that the reason for the death of Anna Nicole Smith (which is to be announced officially on Monday morning), is a Staphylococcus aureus infection in her bloodstream (septicemia), along with a drug overdose.
You may remember that her former stepson, Pierce Marshall, who Anna Nicole was in a bitter court battle with [...]

I just want to direct your attention to a comment left on one of my earlier posts about salon acquired infections:

I am writing to you about this website. I am an investigative producer with the ABC affiliate in Albuquerque, NM. I am trying to track down anyone who’s received an infection, fungus or otherwise as [...]

A University of Missouri-Kansas City researcher has discovered an important element of how Staphylococcus aureus disables the body’s immune system. Normally, when a threating bacteria enters the body, the body sends immune system protiens that break into smaller protiens and trigger the body’s further immune system defense. Staph bacteria produces a protien calle [...]

This is a horrible story and is appalling in this day and age. St. Joseph’s General Hospital in Vegreville, Alberta Canada has been closed down to new admissions and to visitors for two major reasons. There has been a recent spread of MRSA through its patients, and in the process of investigating that [...]

If you need any sort of a surgical procedure, you run the risk of getting an infection, but there are many things you can do that will help prevent getting an infection. Please don’t be afraid to ask that these guidelines are followed. There is nothing in here that is unreasonable to ask [...]

We have heard lots about the antimicrobial properties of silver this past year, how it is being used on artificial body parts, and in pajamas to help kill MRSA, and now copper has the eye of the researchers. It is being trialed in a hospital in the UK, on door handles, faucets and fixtures [...]

If you are in central Florida and are the victim of a nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infection (doesn’t have to necessarily be MRSA), someone is looking for a spokesperson. If you will email me at christina@b5media.com, or leave a comment if you are interested, I will get you in touch with the right person.
Awareness, [...]

This is SUCH a horrible story, and one that probably hits close to home for a lot of us, I know it does for me.
Little Luke Day, 36 hours old, died in a UK hospital 2 years ago, and his court case has come up in the UK this week, bringing little Luke back into [...]

This is great news for Canada - I sure hope the U.S. will follow suit.

Starting in January, 2008, the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation will compel virtually all acute-care hospitals — in addition to those nursing homes and other institutions seeking a stamp of approval — to provide the rates of methicillen-resistant Staphylococcus [...]

These are just a few general MRSA informational links that have popped up across the web over the last week - basic MRSA knowledge - worth a look:
MRSA Infections Becoming Resistant (US - Los Angeles)
MRSA Cases on the Increase (UK)
Infection Adapts to Human Resistance (US - Indiana)
California, Education, Indiana, MRSA, MRSA in the U.S., [...]

Mike, The Mad Biologist , recently attended a Network on Antimicrobial Resistance in Staphylococcus aureus meeting, and came out with some new statistics that you will want to see. Here are a couple of highlights, be sure and read the whole story at Mike’s blog:

43% of all skin infections in the U.S. are the result [...]

We have a new story posted on MRSA Resources, this is the story of Rhoda’s experience with MRSA in her daughter, who was battling addiction, Graves Disease and Fibromyalgia at the time she caught MRSA.

Hi. My name is Rhoda and I am the mother of three beautiful daughters and five granddaughters and one grandson. [...]

I am a sucky blogger, I know. I hate it when I get lazy (or in this case overwhelmed) and wind up missing important information! But, just in case it still may help someone, here is some information about a recall of frozen desserts that were contaminated with Staphlococcus bacteria, from late last week:

The Canadian [...]

The lifesaving antibiotic for MRSA, Vancomycin, has been linked to thrombocytopenia, a disorder that affects the platelet numbers in the blood, and therefore the blood’s ability to form clots and stop bleeding, according to a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
What does this mean for you? This is yet another important [...]

A reader at MRSA Resources left this poem in the comments:
I’ve never tried so hard to speak
and found myself yet unheard
Look out or you’ll die!!
You’d think they’d stop at that word
Die. Dead. Decaesed. Kaput.
With man’s fear of mortality,
he should think something afoot.
Surely someone alive besides me
Feels fear at these words of fatality.
CAMRSA
pronounced like
See a pursa,
is [...]

And it has been another great Theme Day at b5media’s Science & Health channel. This month we are all talking about emergency preparedness - something that is *oh so* important. You don’t realize how important til you get in that situation, but we are all in that situation at some point or another. [...]