MRSA Notes

I am looking for people who have dealt with HA-MRSA in New Hampshire. If you fit the bill and would like to talk to someone about your experiences, please leave a comment, or email me at christina@b5media.com .

Consumers Union has had a very helpful site for a while now, where you can contact your legislators easily, via a premade email, about your MRSA concerns. They have now joined forces with RID, and have a letter about hospital acquired infections that you can send. Find it at this link, where you [...]

Welcome to another Theme Day at the Science & Health channel at b5media! We have come a good way over the past year in helping make folks aware of MRSA and here is an overview of some of the most influential events of 2006.
January 2006 - ESPN Broadcaster Jack Snow dies from complications from [...]

AARP is featuring an article, Dirty Hospitals, this month in their magazine. The article is chock full of sad statistics (”Some 2 million patients get a hospital-acquired infection every year.”), and features Dr. Betsy McCaughey, from RID:

A leading light of that movement is Betsy McCaughey, a health policy expert and former lieutenant governor of [...]

The New York Academy of Sciences is presenting a talk by Barry Kreiswirth of PHRI TB Center, Public Health Research Institute, on the changing epidemiology of MRSA. Here is the abstract for the January 17 talk:

Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been the most clinically important nosocomial pathogen for the last 45 years; during [...]

It is not necessary, it is a convenience product to use in lieu of handwashing - right? Right.
British Muslims have made the news this week as apparently a few people refused the alcohol-based gels when visiting in the hospital due to religous reasons. There is an interesting and eye opening (to me, at least) post [...]

Don’t miss Sarah Boseley’s article at The Guardian about the dangers of hospitals and the bugs that have made their home there. There is nothing that new or life changing in her article, but she reiterates a lot of the stuff I say here every day. And I love that.

But what [...]

The PVL (Panton-Valentine Leukocidin) producing strain of MRSA that is much more common here in the United States has reared its ugly head in the UK Hospitals now, having killed 2 people. In a statement from the Health Protection Agency (HPA), they said:

“PVL-producing strains of MRSA have been seen in the UK before - [...]

Brian Russell, safety for the Cleveland Browns has ended his season with a recurring Staph infection. This is his second occurance of Staph in three months, but he does not have MRSA.

Russell spent his sixth day at the Cleveland Clinic after undergoing another operation. A Browns spokesman confirmed that Russell had staph — [...]

There is a story out now in the December 11th issue of Newsweek that has some MRSA activists a little upset. Old Bugs, New Drugs is a general overview of MRSA, Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) and a couple other bacteria currently scourging society.
The complaints are that the article doesn’t properly warn people of the [...]