MRSA Notes

This is all over the tubes today – Dermacyn, the miracle water that heals MRSA. You’re not supposed to drink it, but apply it to your wounds. Dermacyn is manufactured by Oculus, and is a supercharged salt water solution that has been found to explode MRSA cells. This features/benefits info is from Oculus: NON-IRRITATING: Safe [...]

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 bacteria, [...]

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 [...]

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. Your infections [...]

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. You [...]

I have mentioned bacteriophages and phage therapy a number of different times over the time I have been writing about MRSA, but it seems to be finding its way into my life more than normal lately, via questions from MRSA patients and caregivers and articles of late. I hope this slight increase in buzz might [...]

I swear I already wrote about this, but for the life of me, I cannot find it in my archives here at MRSA Notes. Regardless, it was back in the news last week, so here we go again on a topic that I am not sure how I feel about. London researchers have gained approval [...]

Scientists have found another weak spot in the biology of bacteria in the folate production system. Bacteria can produce their own folate, which is crucial in cell division, while humans cannot – so targeting this process in the bacteria should result in a drug that is not harmful to humans, but prevents the reproduction of [...]

Thanks to DoctorRW, here is a link to a .PDF document regarding Vancomycin and the four most recent antibiotics for use with gram positive antibiotic resistant infections (yes, that is our MRSA). The drugs are Linezolid (Zyvox), Quinupristin-dalfopristin (Synercid), Daptomycin (Cubicin) and Tygecycline (Tygacil). There is some basic, easy to understand information about each drugs, [...]

Here is a group after my own heart, promoting the educated use of antibiotics. Included in their web site, Do Bugs Need Drugs? is information for healthcare professionals, us regular folks, children, daycares and assisted living facilities. Do Bugs Need Drugs? promotes 3 things that everyone needs to know: Handwashing is the best way to [...]