MRSA: How to prevent superbug infection
October 23, 2007
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a superbug resistant to antibiotic treatment causing renewed concern as it is not confined to a hospital setting but can be transmitted in the general population. Several healthy high school students have contracted community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) and at least one high school student has died from MRSA infection.
What exactly is MRSA and how can it be prevented? According to MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia,
Staphylococcus aureus (staph) are common bacteria that normally live on the skin. The bacteria also live harmlessly in the nasal passages of roughly 30 percent of the US population. Staph can cause infection when they enter the skin through a cut or sore. Infection can also occur when the bacteria move inside of the body through a catheter or breathing tube. The infection can be minor and local (for example, a pimple), or more serious.
Most staph infections occur in people with weak immune systems, usually patients in hospitals and long-term care facilities. MRSA infections in hospitalized patients are known as healthcare-associated MRSA (HA-MRSA). People who have been hospitalized or had surgery within the past year are at high risk for HA-MRSA. People receiving certain treatments, such as dialysis, are also at high risk. MRSA bacteria account for a large percentage of hospital-acquired staph infections.
Over the past several years, MRSA infections in people not considered high-risk have increased. These infections, known as community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA), occur in otherwise healthy people who have no history of hospitalization in the last year.
MRSA symptoms include a red, swollen, and painful area on the skin, skin abscess, drainage of pus or other fluids from the site, fever and/or warmth around the infected area. More serious MRSA symptoms include rash, shortness of breath, fever, chills, chest pain, fatigue, muscle aches, malaise and/or headache. In the worst case scenario, MRSA can lead to cellulitis, endocarditis, toxic shock syndrome, pneumonia, blood poisoning, organ failure and death.
What steps can be taken to guard against MRSA? It is amazing we live in the 21st century and the same cause for the spread of the plague during the middle ages might indeed be the same cause for the transmission of our modern day killer MRSA.
Lack of personal hygiene habits and taking precautions when coming into contact with surfaces in public settings — like the grocery store, daycare, local gym or the doctor’s office. It’s common sense. Sick people go to the doctor. The door handle to the doctor’s office or medical center can easily be contaminated with transmittable virus and bacteria.
Wash hands often. When visiting the grocery store have you ever stopped to consider how many other hands have held the buggy handle? Our local supermarket offers antiseptic hand wipes for customers who wish to wipe the buggy handle before using the buggy to shop. But we should not count on others to protect us and a simple practice of carrying an alcohol-based hand sanitizer containing at least 62 percent alcohol to use after we are done shopping and before we grab the wheel of the car to drive home will offer some protection. The same practice of using antiseptic wipes or antiseptic liquid before using gym or sports equipment used by others.
Do not share personal items. MRSA can be transmitted by using a towel, razor, cell phone, sheets, clothing, athletic equipment, brush, comb, toothbrush or makeup that has been contaminated by MRSA. Launder towels and bed sheets in hot water with added bleach and dry them in a hot dryer. MRSA lives on surfaces as well as skin. Keep scrapes, cuts and surface skin wounds clean and covered with a bandage until the injury has completely healed.
We do not have to go to the extremes of say by refusing to shake hands or make physical contact with other people, but we can start adopting the same personal hygiene habits we have been taught will prevent the spread of colds and the flu.
Sources of MRSA information: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia: MRSA; Mayo Clinic: MRSA
