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 resistant bacteria is difficult to treat and can be deadly. The bacteria Staphylococcus aureus can develop resistance to antibiotics. These strains are called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. It usually affects hospitalized patients, but is becoming common in communities. It often causes skin infections resembling a pimple or boil and can also cause pneumonia. These infections often affect young, healthy people, and can be fatal.
If you have open cuts or skin-to-skin contact with others, or live in crowded housing, you’re at higher risk for an MRSA skin infection. To protect yourself, wash your hands often, cover cuts, and avoid sharing towels and razors.
Not much new info here, but nice to see it addressed by the CDC, even in such short form. Perhaps they can work it up to the longer podcast in the future!
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 time. It is at the gyms, in the salons and in the hospital. The important thing to remember is to stay healthy, so your immune system stays healthy, and to obsessively compulsively wash, and make sure those around you do the same, and by George, stay away from the hospital if you don’t absolutely have to be there. Oh, and stay away from those plumbed pedicure tubs. Seriously.
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 in this video, but he has lots of useful information there as well.
Do you use probiotics? Why do you use them and how have they worked for you?
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 said. Every human being he said have scanty amount of Staphylococcus bacteria in the body, but when it is too much, then it could pose serious danger to our health. “Staphylococcus invasion of the body has been seen to render many people infertile to the extent that too much of it in man’s body could make the sperm either to be watery or ineffective to fertilise an ovum.
I am really fascinated by this type of medicine as well as other folk medicine, and feel like it is always worth paying heed to.
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, notably MRSA. Here are the pertinent details about the product:
Prevents Skin Infections Caused by Antibiotic Resistant Staph (MRSA)* and other germs.
StaphAsepticâ„¢ Bactericide Gel can help prevent staph infections when used as part of a complete would care program.
* Kills germs without the use of antibiotics
* Maximum Strength
* Won’t sting or irritate skin
* Soothing wound care
Staph Prevention Program.
* Treat and cover wounds
* Don’t shave personal items (like towels)
* Shower after physical activity
* Properly clean gear and equipment
* Keep hands clean
* Consult your trainer/physician for all active wounds.
Questions? Call 1-800-ITCHING.
*In vitro studios show that StaphAseptic kills over 99.9% of Methicillin (Antibiotic) Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA).
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 her team of germ-fighting volunteers conduct seminars in hospitals, which usually offer the invitation only after she illustrates the financial ramifications of the crisis. ‘In order to get through the front door I have to emphasize the cost to them,’ she says. ”
” Dr. Edward Chapnick, director of the infectious diseases division at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, is pleased McCaughey brought her germ-fighting message to his institution. ‘There are regulatory agencies that are very interested in infection control. But the key difference with RID is that it doesn’t have a punishment component. When state regulators come in they can punish hospitals. When RID comes in, they’re here to help.’ “
Read the full article in the magazine, available at newsstands, or online right here.
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 little critters are, and it is good information for anyone to know, and important for those of us who have dealt with infectious diseases in our lives. The terminology is important if for no other reason than effective communication with your doctors and caregiving staff. The best part is that this article is easy to read and understand and is chock full of great information and examples, so if you are confused as to what a “germ” actually is, don’t miss this.
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 new wife - we pray your infection is wiped out swiftly and easily!
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 how long they can stand for their other friend to scratch the alphabet into their arm. Nice, eh? Can anyone think of what bacteria might be hanging out under said “friend’s” fingernails?
In this case, the girl received what’s known as necrotizing fasciitis - an infection in which toxins destroy skin and muscle - through a scratch on her hand. The infection can be deadly.
The girl received the bacteria last month, and has since undergone seven surgeries to remove tissue infected with the flesh-eating toxins.
At first, doctors were not sure the girl would survive and considered amputating her arm to keep it from spreading. Now, they don’t believe an amputation is necessary but say the arm will likely lose some functionality.
“Necrotizing fasciitis has a very high fatality rate that can approach as much as 60 percent,” said Nicholas Bird, medical director for hyperbaric medicine at Dixie Regional Medical Center. “If someone doesn’t die, they’re very likely to lose a limb or a part of a limb.” [source]
Mama’s, don’t let your babies grow up to be cutters. Or scratchers.
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, and have taken on the costs in order to protect their patients and themselves, and have even been able to “sell” it to the administration:
Robiscek says the MRSA program at his hospital costs $600,000 to $1 million a year to test about 40,000 patients but has cut the number of MRSA infections from more than 100 a year to about 50. Each infection adds about $30,000 to the cost of treatment, he says, “so our hospital administration feels in addition to the human cost, there has been a financial benefit.” [source]
A small price to pay to save lives now, and in the future, don’t you think? And a nice thing to see after seeing whats going on in Ireland, huh?
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:
My friends at 
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?” 
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 how long they can stand for their other friend to scratch the alphabet into their arm. Nice, eh? Can anyone think of what bacteria might be hanging out under said “friend’s” fingernails?
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, and have taken on the costs in order to protect their patients and themselves, and have even been able to “sell” it to the administration:.gif)