MRSA Notes

Have any of you tried this product yet? The Invisible Armor is a triclosan based product designed for households and all sorts of other businesses where you would come in contact with other folks as well as germs from other sources. The Invisible Armor is a skin protectant, with the primary benefit of […]

A speedy minute of health from the CDC this week covers Staphylococcus aureus quick and dirty in a podcast on the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, and can be accessed here. Here you can find the PDF transcript, but one short minute of a podcast doesn’t give you much info - here it is:

Antibiotic […]

Stephanie Stricklen is a health writer for KGW-TV in Oregon, and she wrote a little blurb on her health blog about germs and MRSA in the local gyms, then was surprised at the reaction she got from her readers who let loose with their experiences with MRSA.
Yes, MRSA is all around us, all the […]

This is a video from Dr. Mercola about probiotics - which are the good bacteria that lives in your system. I have written more information about probiotics and how they relate to your MRSA, and you can read more about Dr. Mercola’s probiotics as well. He is trying to sell you his probiotics […]

If you can get through the shaky translation, here you will find an interesting article on infertility, written by Seye Adeniyi from the Nigerian Tribune. The article implicates Staphylococcus bacteria in infertility:

Most of the times, the problems could be traceable to Staphylococcus bacteria, provided the problem does not have spiritual attachment or reason, he […]

I have mentioned this product really briefly in the past, but they have recently run a PR campaign, reminding me that it certainly bears mentioning once again. StaphAseptic is a wound care product, sold over the counter (and at Drugstore.com, linked above and to the image), and is a gel product designed to kill […]

My friends at RID are featured in the Spring issue of Ms. magazine. Here is an exerpt:

Hospital-acquired infections add an estimated $30.5 billion to the nation’s annual health-care tab in hospital costs alone…’These infections are often transmitted by touch,’ McCaughey said. ‘RID has shown how deadly poor housekeeping can be in hospitals.’ ”
”McCaughey and […]

Do you know the difference between a bacteria and a virus? How about a virus and a fungus? Do you throw all of these words around interchangably, or maybe just call them all “germs?”
Well, germs they certainly all are. Mayo Clinic has a great article talking about what all these infectious […]

Australian Olympic swimmer Grant Hackett has been hospitalized with a blood infection stemming from a cut on his ankle. MRSA? Hopefully not, but unfortunately, its very likely.
He is in Beijing, the home of the next Olympics, doing some promotional work, and therefore is currently hospitalized there.
Best wishes to Grant and his […]

I remember *way back when* I was a teenager - we did all sorts of completely stupid things like carving our skin up with peace signs or band logos with knives. Yah, dumb stuff. This is the tale of a 14 yr old in Utah, playing the “ABC game,” where the kids see […]

I always love it when MRSA hits the mainstream media, and it has done just that. Yesterday, USA Today’s Anita Manning presents an article about “search and destroy” programs being implemented in some of our nation’s hospitals in order to combat HA-MRSA. These hospitals have seen successful results in a few other hospitals, […]

Nah, Im not talking about natural selection selecting us hu-mans out, but the process of natural selection that keeps bacterial and viral infections growing stronger and more resistant all the time.
While not directly related to MRSA, this article regarding some research done in Vancouver on disease transmission and the survival of the fittest bugs was […]

MRSA Support chairman, and friend, Tony Field has come out this week and accused Irish hospitals of discharging patients early, without MRSA testing, then when the patients come back in a few weeks, they call their MRSA “community-acquired.” All of this effort just so they can show lower infection rates. [source]
Is this an eye […]

Congratulations to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center for receiving the Qualis Health Award of Excellence for leading the way in hospital infection prevention. They have made a hospital wide effort to reduce MRSA in their facility by extremely good handwashing by the staff, screening patients and using isolation techniques to control MRSA, and it […]

Good news for the future of speedy MRSA testing (currently a rushed test still takes 24 hours or more to get results)! Cepheid’s Xpert MRSA Test has been cleared by the FDA for marketing to hospitals. For all ‘yall with the need to know more, here are some gory details:

The GeneXpert System is […]

This program has been in place in the adult wards, but now children admitted to the pediatric wards at John’s Hopkins will be screened for MRSA and VRE (Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci). They conducted a study that reinforced the idea:

In a study of 330 patients that lasted four months, weekly testing found 54 percent of patients […]

Results from a survey of 364 certified U.S. athletic trainers (presented at the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America) revealed that 53% of them had treated MRSA in the atheletes under their care:

Of the infections treated: 86 percent were in males and 35 percent were in females; 65 percent were in football players; 21 percent […]

This is the story of a man in Maryland, and his experience with MRSA. Thanks for sharing this with us, and again, if you are interested in sharing your experiences with others, please feel free to email me at christina@b5media.com.
I contracted the bacterial infection about 3 years ago. The infection corresponds with hospital check […]

This is Debbie’s story. Debbie is a military wife living in Alaska who acquired the even more resistant VRSA (Vancomycin resistant Staph) from a hospital when they were stationed in North Carolina. Keep Debbie and her family in your prayers. If you would like to share your story, please feel free to […]

Interestingly enough, I recently had a great conversation with another blogger (during a blogger meetup while I was in Toronto last week) about LASIK (Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis) surgery - this is the laser surgery that is so popular now for vision correction. This is something that I have been hesitant about […]

After a week out of town, with a few days tacked on each end visiting with my best girlfriend from Tennessee who came down to watch the kids while I traveled, I am back. Rather than going back and attempting to catch up with everything I have missed while I have been out, I […]

I encourage anyone in New Jersey who has dealt with MRSA to get in touch with Ms. Campbell. These are great opportunities to spread the word about MRSA, and sometimes it is just plain therapeutic to talk about it. Ms. Campbell left a post on MRSA Resources, but here it is again:

I am […]

I received an email from Ms. Muller the other day - she is very concerned about MRSA, and has seen the ugly side of prosthetics first hand, and has a lawsuit going against her surgeon and the hospital involved.
She had a double mastectomy, and during one of her reconstructive surgeries, to put expanders in to […]

Great news in Illinois - from Jeanine Thomas, founder of the MRSA Survivors Network. She has been working so hard for hospital disclosure of MRSA rates, and has had a good measure of success this month:

Again this year I initiated MRSA screening and reporting legislation and in the last 3 months have been lobbying […]