MRSA Notes

Much ado has been made lately about Surgical Site Infections (SSI’s) and how they are one of the most commonly reported nosocomial (healthcare-acquired) infections. Dr. Robert Penn has been doing his own research on them, trying to discover what can be done to lower the rates of infection. Good for him!! He has found that [...]

Strange stuff coming down the pipeline in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. I am not quite sure if this is a truly amazing discovery, or if times are getting desperate. LOL Artificial peptides are being produced by scientists, using basic grammar rules to manipulate the genetic code, and improve and change their ability to fight. [...]

  The Germ Zapper is a new product out for instant hand sanitation – its benefits are that it is safer, because it is non-toxic and non-flammable. They are marketing this product to schools and health care facilities as a safer alternative to the current hand sanitizers. My favorite thing about this line (well, besides [...]

Canadian corporation Ondine Biopharma has received CE Mark approval for the use of its new Photodynamic Disinfection System: The Photodynamic Disinfection system developed by Ondine utilizes low-intensity lasers and wavelength-specific, light-activated compounds to specifically target and destroy microbial pathogens and reduce the symptoms of disease. The compounds are generally topically applied and one or more [...]

Also presented at the ICAAC conference was research on the use of reusable examination gloves, treated with a combination of chlorhexadine (Peridex) and a brilliant green dye – the combination is known as Gardine and is an antiseptic rather than an antibiotic. This is preliminary research from the University of Texas (gig ‘em, Ags ) [...]

Targanta presented the Phase III studies of its lead product, Oritavancin, at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC). The findings “show significant promise in combating a critical public health issue:” The gory details of the study and presentation can be found here, and here is a little more about Oritavancin for us [...]

The following is a press release from Johns Hopkins about research being done to understand why some people have recurrent sinus infections, despite being given all of the current therapies and even undergoing unsuccessful surgeries. The long and short of it is that these people have reduced gene activity in the body’s nasal immune system. [...]

A study has been done by testing samples from surfaces in Canadian hospitals, and the results were quite different from what was expected: The study examined more than 4,000 samples from 19 intensive care units in Canadian hospitals. It found that 20 to 50 percent of staphylococcus aureus bacteria, a major cause of wound and [...]

This is something I have been doing since my husband was sick with MRSA and I have learned so much more about the proper use of antibiotics. A tidbit of history here – my daughter, who is now 12, had a series of ear infections from infancy on until a year or so ago. She [...]

Just a quick FYI, according to a study from University of Arizona researchers, classrooms have the highest bacteria count – 20 times more bacteria than lawyer’s offices and 7 times more bacteria than the doctor’s office. Why in God’s green earth they chose to test lawyers offices I do not know, but that is what [...]