At the advice of a friend, I installed a site meter to check on who was coming to my blog and what they were interested in. Want to know what interested people the most? If you don't want to know, don't read any further :)
My blog is tracking an average of 27 hits a day from just about every state in the US plus places like Brisbane, Queenland and Swindon in the United Kingdom and Parow, Western Cape in South Africa and Bermuda and a whole bunch of places I had to look up to figure out where they are. Talk about teaching an old lady about Geography!
I digress....the topic everyone is interested in? A month or so ago I posted a series on the 10 dirtiest places. Believe it or not, that is the topic everyone is interested in! It actually generated the fewest comments yet it is 90% of the draw to my blog.
So since everyone is interested in dirt and the dirtiest places, I will add this one to the bunch and actually the one that scares me the most especially with my upcoming surgery. It is everywhere. The bug is MRSA.
You have to be living under a rock or be in a consistent drug induced state to not be aware of MRSA. It's the latest news piece. MRSA is an acronymn for a Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection which is caused by Staphylococcus aureus bacteria — often called "staph." It can be fatal. It has only been around a couple of decades but it has grown to amazing proportions. It was one of the first germs to outwit all but the most powerful drugs. Vancomycin is one of the few antibiotics still effective against hospital strains of MRSA infection, although the drug is no longer effective in every case.
Do you think you have to go to a hospital to get it or even be sick to get it? Do you think you need to come into contact to get it? Nope.....wrong. Staph bacteria is found on the skin or in the nose of about one-third of the population. If you have staph on your skin or in your nose but aren't sick, you are said to be "colonized" but not infected with MRSA. Healthy people can be colonized with MRSA and have no ill effects, however, they can pass the germ to others.
Why did a simple staph infection turn into a super bug?
1. The sheer numbers of over prescribing of antibiotics by physicians and by patients who insist on being given an antibiotic for a virus. We are a "we are sick and we want it gone now society".
2. The number of antibiotics in food and water. Here in the good ole' United States, antibiotics can be found in beef cattle, pigs and chickens. The same antibiotics then find their way into municipal water systems when the runoff from feedlots contaminates streams and groundwater.
3. Germ mutation. Even when antibiotics are used appropriately, they contribute to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria because they don't destroy every germ they target. Bacteria live on an evolutionary fast track, so germs that survive treatment with one antibiotic soon learn to resist others. And because bacteria mutate much more quickly than new drugs can be produced, some germs end up resistant to just about everything. That's why only a handful of drugs are now effective against most forms of staph. And the side effects of those drugs are huge! I have a friend who acquired MRSA and was off work for an entire year. This is not a bug to mess with!
Risk factors:
1. A current or recent hospitalization. A 2007 report from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology estimates that 1.2 million hospital patients are infected with MRSA each year in the United States. They also estimate another 423,000 are colonized with it.
2. Living in a long-term care facility. MRSA is far more prevalent in these facilities than it is in hospitals. Carriers of MRSA have the ability to spread it, even if they're not sick themselves. I read not too long ago that 50% of nursing home patients have active MRSA infections and the other 50% are carriers because they have been exposed to it.
3. Invasive devices. People who are on dialysis, are catheterized, or have feeding tubes or other invasive devices are at higher risk.
4. Recent antibiotic use, especially antibiotics like cipro, ofloxzcin, levaquin, or a cephalosporin.
5. Our children who do not have fully developed immune systems or our aged whose immune systems are no longer as healthy as they used to be.
6. Participation in contact sports. The bacteria is spread easily through cuts and abrasions and skin-to-skin contact.
7. Sharing towels or athletic equipment. MRSA has spread among athletes sharing razors, towels, uniforms or equipment. And here all you thought you had to worry about was athletes foot and warts :)
8. Anyone with a weakened immune system.
9. Anyone living in crowded or unsanitary conditions: military training camps and prisons.
10. Association with health care workers. Yep be afraid of me!
When do you get medical help? Keep an eye on pimples, insect bites, cuts and scrapes. If they become infected, see your doctor. INSIST on having any skin infection swabbed and tested for MRSA before starting any antibiotics. Drugs that treat ordinary staph aren't effective against MRSA, and their use could lead to serious illness and more resistant bacteria.
Prevention:
1. Wash your hands frequently and I don't mean just get them wet. Scrub your hands briskly for at least 15 seconds, then dry them with a disposable towel and use another towel to turn off the faucet. Carry a small bottle of hand sanitizer containing at least 62 percent alcohol for times when you don't have access to soap and water.
2. Properly disinfect surfaces...good old Lysol spray works..along with bleach... alcohol (not the drinking kind).
3. Wear a mask and gown and gloves if you encounter someone with MRSA.
4. Insist that all medical staff (even doctors) wash their hands before touching you — each and every time. It isn't good enough to be wearing gloves...where did those gloves come from and who did they touch last?
5. If you are hospitalized, ask to be bathed with disposable cloths treated with a disinfectant rather than with soap and water. (This is also why I refuse to remain in the hospital after my surgery. Come hell or high water I will be going home that day!
6. Make sure that intravenous tubes and catheters are inserted and removed under sterile conditions and that they have sterilized your skin before inserting that IV.
7. Keep personal items personal. Avoid sharing items such as towels, sheets, razors, clothing and athletic equipment. MRSA spreads on contaminated objects as well as through direct contact. Yep it lives on objects for up to 8 hours.
8. Keep a wound covered. Keep cuts and abrasions clean and covered with sterile, dry bandages until they heal. The pus from infected sores often contains MRSA, and keeping wounds covered will help keep the bacteria from spreading.
9. Sanitize your linens. If you have a cut or sore, wash towels and bed linens in hot water with added bleach and dry them in a hot dryer.
10. Wash gym and athletic clothes after each wearing (put a cap of lysol in your wash).
11. Get tested. If you have a skin infection that requires treatment, you should be tested for MRSA. Many doctors prescribe drugs that aren't effective against antibiotic-resistant staph, which delays treatment and creates more resistant germs. For that matter, if you are a health care worker, get tested monthly with nasal swabs. If you visit someone in a nursing home or hospital, get tested.
So who is running to wash their hands?
