Spread of MRSA: Past Time for Action

scorpiotiger · � #1 � 02-19-2008, 02:52 PM

Spread of MRSA: Past Time for Action

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/569312

Quote:

There is now no doubt that we have a rising threat of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, infection both inside and outside our US hospitals.
A study published in the October 17, 2007, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association described the frequency of invasive or more severe MRSA infection in 9 geographically separated communities across the United States.[1] The CDC [Centers for Disease Control] study group concluded that in 2005, there were approximately 90,000 persons diagnosed with severe MRSA infection, mostly elderly, and an estimated 19,000 patients died.
The majority of severe MRSA infections were acquired during hospital stays or as a result of prior contact with medical care facilities, underscoring the importance of efforts directed at reducing hospital transmission.[2]
Adding to the concern posed by MRSA acquired within hospitals is the rapid rise in numbers of MRSA infections acquired from within community settings. Community-acquired MRSA has been shown to cause the majority of soft tissue abscesses in patients seen in US emergency rooms, with infections often involving healthy younger adults and children.[3]
Medical professionals must lead the cultural transformation within our healthcare settings necessary to slow the spread of MRSA.
Within the hospital, we all need to better incorporate proven methods of infection control, such as improved hand hygiene, compliance with the use of protective gowns and gloves where appropriate, and wiser antimicrobial stewardship.
In the outpatient settings, we can help control the spread of MRSA by recognizing its importance in causing soft tissue abscesses, confirming infection by performing appropriate cultures, and by emphasizing to our patients the importance of good hygiene, keeping draining lesions covered, and reminding patients and their families to not share personal items.
The threat of MRSA is real, and it is past time for more concerted efforts by all.
That's my opinion. I'm Dr. Thomas Ward, Chief, Infectious Diseases, Portland Oregon VA Medical Center.

Iggy Dalrymple · � #2 � 02-19-2008, 04:42 PM

A few days ago I thought I had a case of MRSA. A big red swelling just forward of my right temple, with a mole in the center. It had the radius of about 1/3rd of an orange. It hurt with occasional shooting pangs. A few days earlier my right jaw joint was very sore and continued to be sore when the inflammation began. Finally, when it began to look alarming, I drove to the VA. I always heard that you should have a doctor examination any change in a mole. Two or three nurses and a doctor examined me and didn't think the mole was anything to be alarmed about. I told them that I had just began wearing hearing aids, about 10 days earlier. They figured that the pressure of the hearing aids affected my jaw and possibly I was allergic them. They told me to return if the inflammation continued to expand, because it might be shingles.

Yesterday, the swelling began to go down but the area was still red. The mole was scabbed over. I picked at the scab and the mole came off. I then remembered that 2 or 3 weeks earlier, I had applied an alkaline wart & mole removal paste to 4 or 5 different moles, including the infected one. I used "Skin Answer" that I had bought 10 or 12 years ago. The FDA made Lane Labs withdraw the product because it was an unapproved drug. I had forgotten that I had recently applied the paste because it didn't seem to be working.

Arrowwind09 · � #3 � 02-19-2008, 05:08 PM

Hope things continue to heal. Such a reaction to have. I hope it is done, Iggy.

I am hopeful that MRSA can be well treated with MMS. Just waiting for someone to try it and let me know.

Arrowwind09 · � #4 � 02-20-2008, 10:12 AM

A one in five chance that you are dead in a year if you get community acquired MRSA! This is why I have been on the MRSA rant! I have seen it and know it first hand through my work.

And guess what! Now there are strains developing that kill in 24 hours!

Hardly a moment to prepare a defense. Please. Get your MMS, your beta glucon and your allicin and colloidal silver before its too late. Statistically, you or someone you know will need it.

https://www.reuters.com/article/healt...96900420080219

Community-acquired MRSA infection often fatal
Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:10pm EST Email | Print | Share | Reprints | Single Page| Recommend (-)
By David Douglas

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Among people with a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection caught in the general community (rather than in hospital), more than 20 percent were dead within a year, according to new research findings.

Dr. Samy Suissa told Reuters Health that doctors have to be on the lookout "for increasingly frequent community-acquired MRSA infections that too often turn out to be fatal."

MRSA infections used to be seen only in hospitalized patients, but nowadays they are occurring more frequently in the general population.

Suissa, at McGill University Health Center, Montreal, Canada, and colleagues used a UK general practice database to identify 1439 MRSA patients diagnosed in the community from 2001 to 2004. Each patient was compared with up to 10 matched patients without a MRSA diagnosis.

All of the subjects were older than 18 years of age, the average age was 70 years, and none had been hospitalized within the previous 2 years. The patients with MRSA were more likely to have other medical conditions, the researchers report in the online medical journal BMC Medicine.

After 1 year of follow-up, 21.8 percent of MRSA patients had died compared to only 5.0 percent of those in the non-MRSA group.

"Our study suggests that MRSA can be a potentially serious infection in the community leading to increased mortality," the investigators conclude.

They add that the "judicious use of antibiotics is essential to prevent these quite deadly community-acquired MRSA infections," given the emergence of antibiotic resistance when antibiotics are used indiscriminately.

SOURCE: BMC Medicine, January 31, 2008.

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