MRSA Notes

The non-profit organization The Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics is looking for individuals who have or have had MRSA to fill out an anonymous survey and provide suggestions on how to improve it. The survey will help us to find out more about the concerns of people affected by MRSA and should take about 25 minutes to complete.

To access the survey, please click
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=7n96_2br9cCE_2bb6ZfHCsOCsA_3d_3d
If you have any questions please contact Dr. Susan Foster at 617 636 3961 or email susan.foster@tufts.edu.

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Perez Hilton is my secret addiction - my break in the busy days. Love him or hate him, you can love him today for bringing some attention to MRSA to his monstrously wide audience. He is reporting about the prevalence of MRSA in the Lynwood County Jail where his friend Paris Hilton happens to be for the next 20 or so days. Less with good behavior.

Perez, you should know that prisons are not the only place you can get MRSA, it is out there in the community, in our gyms and in our schools, not to mention all of our hospitals. Thanks for bringing some attention to this important issue - the prisons definitely have a huge problem. I have had more heartfelt letters from mothers, wives and children of prisoners with MRSA than you can imagine - it breaks my heart. And good luck to Paris - as badly as she is treated in the media and elsewhere, I like her and think they absolutely have misread her completely. That includes you, Marshall. And I think she is going to learn a lot from her current situation.

If you are sensitive to offensive language, don’t check out Perez’s link above, but if you loves you some good celebrity humor, you will love Perez. Wait - you already read him, I’m sure. We have lots more about MRSA in prisons at MRSA Notes, so check it out too.

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There is a wonderful article in LHJ this month on MRSA, featuring the story of CJ Jackson, son of my friend Francine Jackson. You can read the entire article at the RID web site - it is full of basic information that everyone needs to know about MRSA and CJ’s wonderful story that will hopefully give hope to everyone battling MRSA!

Read more about what Francine and CJ are doing to promote MRSA Awareness on MRSA Notes.

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From Sky News:

The former Men Behaving Badly star contracted MSSA - a variant of MRSA - at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.

The Sun says she will seek a larger financial settlement at the High Court next week.

Ash served a writ on the hospital which has now reportedly agreed an “interim” £250,000 payout.

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Leslie Ash, an actress in the UK well known as an advocate for cleaner hospitals, reportedly has initiated a lawsuit against the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London where she acquired MRSA during hospitalization in 2004. No more info available at this point, but I will update when I hear more.

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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 to use around the nose, mouth and eyes.
• READY TO USE: No mixing, dilution or rinsing necessary.
• STABLE: Solution has a shelf life of one year from date of manufacture.
• pH-NEUTRAL: pH 6.2 to 7.8
• EASY TO APPLY: Can be used directly on the wound or in combination with gauze, sponges or other absorbent wound dressings.
• EASY DISPOSAL: No special disposal requirements.

Dermacyn is only available from licensed physicians, so if you are interested in it, as always, get thee to the doc.

Let me know if you have tried this and what results you have had - inquiring minds want to know!

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Sadly, I have decided to pull MRSA Notes out of b5media, as I am just a little too busy to be able to keep up my end of my committment with b5media, and since I love them so much, I don’t want to take from them without giving back at least as much.

I will do my best to at least keep you up to date with what is going on - maybe minus some of my charming repartee - but only some.

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This is a topic that we could probably talk about all day long - from about 100 different angles - but it is very interesting news.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered that mice with a herpes virus infection seem to have better resistance to bacterial infections.  The long and short of it is that the presence of the herpes virus in the bodies of mice seem to put their immune system in “on guard” mode - ready and able to fight intruders.  The herpes virus in mice is very similar to the one in humans, so this is potentially a significant finding. [source]

The questions arise as we try to fight and eliminate the herpes virus, which has infected a reported 50% of the population (and I truly expect the real numbers - unreported - will show a tremendously higher percentage).  This virus doesn’t show any symptoms in a tremendous number of people who have it, doesn’t appear to do any long term damage to the body systems and if it isn’t making people sick and IS helping to combat other potential problems - is it a bad thing?

What do you think?  I think more research on this topic is definitely needed myself.  It doesn’t look like the herpes virus is going anywhere anytime soon - it comes in so many different flavors (herpes simplex I and II, chicken pox, shingles and many other lesser known forms), and we haven’t gotten anywhere with it so far - perhaps we can learn to embrace it.  Who knows? 

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Here is a feel good story for you - Grant Cawte, who has survived more unsurvivable illnesses than anyone I can think of - is representing Great Britain in the World Transplant Games this summer in Bangkok.  Grant has come back from leukemia, a brain tumor, a rejected transplant AND MRSA.  All of that and he is only 33.

Since this is a feel good story, I am going to let you go read his story, at Oxford Mail, if you want the details of what he has been through - I am reporting the happy stuff here today. ;)  Grant will be competing in badminton, running and cycling this August - all the best in luck and good health to him!

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Do you know about the Robin Hood Fund?  This is a really nifty charity site appealing both to the fun and to the serious.  Make a wish, either naughty or nice, and the users vote on who’s wish to grant.  That is the ultra short version, read more about it here.

Anyway, there is a wish on there from an MRSA victim:

I’m wishing for a mobile scooter because a year ago, I had surgery done to my left knee. It was supposed to be a simple day surgery, but it turned out to be a long stretch of 2 horrible months. I caught MRSA, from I don’t know where, and ended up getting 8 surgeries on my knee within a 2 month period. I am at my maximum recovery right now, but I can’t bend my knee, So it makes it difficult to get around. I can walk on it, but only for very short periods of time. The more I walk on it the sorer it gets. Its like I’m damned if I do…damned if I don’t. I was starting to get really depressed, due to the fact that I am more or less housebound. I don’t own a car, and I can’t even ride a bicycle, becasue of my left knee (My doctor’s that were involved in my surgeries, say that my leg is naturally fused, and to get another operation, I risk the fact that I may get MRSA again). So any help would greatly be appreciated.

I know I can identify, and some of you might as well.  If you’re interested, help this person out, I know it would be much appreciated.

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