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65 Comments
- jtbell04, on 09/29/2008, -0/+25Thanks, doctors who pump patients full of antibiotics and prescribe dickless parents amoxicillin for their kids with the sniffles!
- Stevanoski, on 09/28/2008, -1/+15And the worse thing is they send these patients to nursing homes (where I work) thus spreading the mrsa and cdiff even further. Not to mention scabies.
- txchica, on 09/28/2008, -1/+10They send them home with it too, I work in Home Health and we deal with these people all the time, some times there's nothing but a post it attached to the paperwork warning of possible MRSA. Why they let these people out of the hospital is beyond me. Although patients are getting the infections in the hospital it's still the best environment for containing and controlling it.
- kimathi, on 09/29/2008, -1/+9MRSA is a huge problem in the United States. More die in one year than the given total from the UK. And if we did have universal coverage like the Netherlands who had the best response to MRSA, maybe we could have done better at addressing and avoiding the epidemic.
- Stevanoski, on 09/28/2008, -1/+9Have a friend, nurse, who was taking care of a mrsa patient, she thought she had a spider bite on her rump. She had me look at it and I said, "dang, that's mrsa"
Now her hubby, teen daughter and two year old son have it. Experts claim once it's in a house it is there to stay.
PS: the nosocomials (hospital acquired disease) are only going to increase. Scary times. - pjisback, on 09/29/2008, -0/+7I got a MRSA infection in a surgical incision last year. Fortunately it was caught and treated in time before the infection spread deeper into my leg where I had just had surgery to repair a shattered femur. I got the infection while staying in the hospital ward where it was apparently going around. No one informed me or any of the other patients that this was around, and only when my wound started to hurt and spew pus did I think to get it checked out. I feel pretty lucky that it was only as bad as it was.
- habenneas, on 09/29/2008, -0/+7Randall Flagg is unimpressed.
- Oea420, on 09/29/2008, -0/+6Hi. I work in an assisted living facility (One step down from a full-blown nursing home, but still not a SNF)
We've had an outrageous outbreak of c-diff currently (If you know what c-diff does, you can imagine the impact that is having on the staff, heh)
Now MRSA.... When you are dealing with people who are in and out of a hospital it's just a fact of life, really. The most you can do is wear protective gear and constantly wash your hands... but i've had my share - rodon, on 09/29/2008, -0/+6My wife is a nurse and she frequently has patients with C-diff and MRSA. However, these patients are under strict isolation.
I can't imagine these types of patients not being in isolation. So many more people can become infected, it can put a huge burden on something like the NHS.
Pre-screening is key. - txchica, on 09/29/2008, -0/+5Thanks for the link, it's good to know that the ability to sterilize the "soft" items is out there, probably cheaper to do this than to replace them. Still seems like it would be easier/safer if they kept this (MRSA etc) in the hospitals where it belongs, or better yet improve infection control techniques so that patients don't get these diseases/infections when they're in the hospital. I'm probably asking for too much to think that cross contamination won't occur, but at least we should attempt to minimize it.
- MachineMessiah, on 09/29/2008, -0/+5Greg House of "House M.D." would say "These are our babies. We created them. Have a case of the sniffles? Here, have some Levaquin. Pretty soon we'll be putting Vancomycin in the water supply." Certainly it isn't that extreme, but it's a good point.
- JMilton, on 09/29/2008, -0/+5Germs have been around for billions of years. Antibiotics have been around for decades. It's obvious who will adapt first. Especially when doctors prescribe antibiotics for a single sneeze. Let us enjoy our new super resistant diseases together.
- txchica, on 09/28/2008, -1/+6That's horrible and you're right it's extremely difficult to get rid of MRSA when it's in the home. Disinfecting the home isn't really easy when you have carpet, curtains, mattresses etc, plus it's not cheap. I work with patients (Physical Therapy) and we have lots of patient to provider contact, its scary when you're not sure if the patient has some communicable disease and you can't always wear the protective gear.
I remember when I was in the military working at Wilford Hall Medical Center and we worked with MRSA,Scabies etc, there were all kinds of isolation and protective measures that had to be followed, now when I go into a hospital I don't see that, just a sign on the door, not even sure they're doing negative air pressure in the rooms. Scary indeed. - inactive, on 09/29/2008, -0/+5But evolution doesn't exist! god must have made these bugs specially because he hates you.
- commodore64, on 09/29/2008, -0/+5Xenophobia! I was wondering where you've been!
- inactive, on 09/29/2008, -0/+5Last January my step-father went into the VA hospital in Tampa for some routine imaging procedures. He was told he'd be home in a couple of days. Shortly after being admitted they moved him into a quarantine wing. When we asked we were told that since he was having an incision made in his lung tissue they wanted to keep him from being exposed to MRSA. He remained in quarantine for the next month. He died on February 21st. We were told that he died of heart failure as a result of an adverse reaction to his treatment. Then the funeral home couldn't get the body quickly and when we asked we were told that the body was infected with MRSA and they had to use special people to handle it, which had caused the delay. The VA still hasn't admitted that his death was in any way related to MRSA and my mother has been denied DIC benefits because they claim his death wasn't from anything related to his service related injuries (he lost an eye and a leg in a Kamikaze attack at Leyte) or his stay at the VA hospital.
- SammyJr, on 09/29/2008, -0/+5MRSA is another good reason for parents to say no to newborn circumcision. Its seems like a very bad idea to put a child at unnecessary risk of MRSA infection.
- empraptor, on 09/29/2008, -0/+4xenophobia much? (EDIT: where the hell are you getting this 90% figure from?)
And btw you're supposed to learn to do manipulations if you're a DO.
:-P - beaverfetus, on 09/29/2008, -0/+4a surprisingly high number of people have MRSA living in their nostrils (nares). You can culture something like 10% of the population and find MRSA. Bad stuff can happen if this flora is introduced to a place where it can grow and cause damage (like a surgical incision) scrape...
- BristolMyLove, on 12/21/2008, -0/+4My mom had MRSA and was in the hospital. While she was in the hospital, I was playing with a smoke "bomb" and burnt my finger (this was 6 years ago, I was relatively young). My open wound touched something she had touched and the my cut became infected. My finger ballooned to 2.5x normal size. I ended up being in the hospital for 6 days.
It sucked while it was happening, but now that I look back on it, it's OK because I ended up playing Grand Theft Auto for 6 days straight hah. The non-stop noise of sirens coming from my room probably drove everybody crazy. - HonestAbe, on 09/29/2008, -0/+4Anti-bacterial soap is a lot different from antibiotics that you take internally.
- Takfam, on 09/29/2008, -1/+4A friend of mine picked up a MRSA infection after an emergency room visit. The doctors told us that it spreads similar to pink eye. It feels very odd washing your hands with anti-bacterial soap when you know it was the over-use of antibiotics that gave rise to resistant bacterial infections like MRSA.
- Stevanoski, on 09/28/2008, -1/+4There is a way to sterilize it. But you have to contact a company that makes hydrogen peroxide into a vapor. It will completely sterilize all "soft" items like drapes etc. But it is hard on your electronics.
http://www.bioquell.com/us/?gclid=CM-7h7fW_5UCFSj2 ... - crazymonkey, on 09/29/2008, -2/+5Before we all start donning our tinfoil hats, in 1918 - there was a flu pandemic that nuked a good portion of the world population.
I'm sure it looked like the end of the world to people back then as well... - Takfam, on 09/29/2008, -0/+3I'm aware of that, but it still doesn't take the odd feeling away. Killing bacteria gave rise to stronger bacteria, and there will always be a part of me that thinks using more anti-microbial/bacterials to clean to prevent the spread of a resistant bacteria is somewhat counter-productive.
Kind of like setting a fireline to stop a wild fire. You know such a practice has a decent chance work because the past shows success with it, but lighting a fire to stop a fire seems ludicrous at face value. - nevets138, on 09/29/2008, -0/+3If one person's staph cells get into the pores of your skin it will spread like an infection. And your parents, siblings, or children may have a different staph cell type then you, so say if they rub against the wall, then you rub against the wall, the cell COULD get in your pores and start an infection.
I got it from my gym. I had 4 or 5 marble/golf ball size boils on my arm. Only took about a week, who knows how bad it would of gotten if I didn't get it taken care of. - HonestAbe, on 09/29/2008, -0/+3Colloidal silver is very effective at turning people blue and making money for the quacks who hawk it.
- Haecceity, on 09/29/2008, -1/+4It's "C. difficile," not "C-difficile." When newspapers have such trouble getting basic things right, it doesn't make me very confident with regard to the factual accuracy of the rest of their reporting.
- sedo1800, on 09/29/2008, -0/+2good to hear about your son
- roflmcwaffles, on 09/29/2008, -0/+2As someone in the health care field, I have this one advice for you. If you find yourself in the hospital, make sure that your nurses and doctors (and even visitors) wash their hands or use hand sanitizer before and after caring for you. Health care workers are often swamped and will sometimes forget to wash their hands, which is one of the main reasons why MRSA can spread so easily.
- nevets138, on 09/29/2008, -1/+3I had MRSA. They doc gave me some antibiotics and it cleared right up.
It was absolutely awful. And if it wasn't for my dad's health insurance it probably would have eaten off my arm. - inactive, on 09/29/2008, -0/+2I went through an MRSA infection this year. I was bedridden for three weeks (i became very advanced very quickly) and had two outpatient surgeries (basically cutting open my leg to wash out the abscess site) and dual antibiotics. At one point, I was acutely aware of my health was going downhill so fast that I could gauge my own morality ona short rule.
We have no idea where I got it from, no that it matters much now, but it took about four months before I was back to normal afterwards. This stuff is aggressive and hard to kill, and it's only becoming more resistant with every passing year.
And everyone at work wonders why I wash my hands maybe ten times a day. - Oea420, on 09/29/2008, -0/+2Once things start to become resistant to Vancomycin we're doomed, lol
- Ladygreen, on 09/29/2008, -0/+2My son was 21 months old and got C-diff and the doctors told me it was because he was given too many antibiotics in too short of a time frame. Antibiotics They gave him over and over for ear infections or strep. He had only been in the hospital the day he was born. The medication they gave him at the time was so horrible he would vomit the instant you touched his tounge with it. The doctors just kept saying "hide the meds in something and make him take it so he can get better" I was never told it was a life threatening illness, that it could spread, or the real reason he had it. It was so horrible to see my son so sick and not be able to really do anything about it. He did get better though.
- Stevanoski, on 09/29/2008, -0/+2It's in the schools. Last year about 20 wrestlers got MRSA and I don't know how many on the football team got cdiff.
- tmc1, on 09/29/2008, -0/+2My 3 year old son had c-diff 2 years ago and it scared the hell out of me. It's nasty and the child who has it's bowels are a wreck. It has to be treated aggresively. We used Pro-biotics mixed in juice along w/ medicine. It all happens when your kid gets a bad ear infection and has to go on antibiotics...
- Stevanoski, on 09/29/2008, -0/+2What most people don't understand is that to kill the bacteria on your hands you have to scrub hard for 30 seconds then rinse from the wrist down. Try this in a normal bathroom sink and your finger tips will touch the sink.
Even alcohol has to be in contact with the "germ" for at least 60 seconds. I'm also a CPR instructor and I wash all my dummies with a viralcide that only has to be in contact with the surface for 10 seconds to kill any and all. - HonestAbe, on 09/29/2008, -1/+3Your comment doesn't make any sense. We should NOT get paranoid because a flu pandemic DID kill a lot of people?
- manstein01, on 09/29/2008, -1/+3How the hell is staph contagious in a home setting? Can someone please enlighten me on the issue? I admit, I'm medically naive.
- docbob84, on 09/30/2008, -0/+1That said, please DON'T decide not to give your kids antibiotics because you're worried about C.diff. Treat the infection, monitor CLOSELY for c.diff. Don't risk your child's hearing over a possibility.
- beauley, on 10/01/2008, -0/+1Ever since the inrush of the American "Industrial Revolution", the nutritional value of the food we eat has been on the decline, even following the addition of vitamins and minerals to fortify our foods to offset the losses using artificial fertilizers.
http://www.gomestic.com/Consumer-Information/Our-F ...
Our Food is Quickly Loosing Its Nutritional Value - docbob84, on 09/30/2008, -0/+1Too late. Vanc-resistant enterococcus is somewhat common, and there have already been cases of VRSA in the US, Japan, and Europe.
- Oea420, on 09/30/2008, -0/+1Yeah, almost everyone is ambulatory... so spreading of anything is a real problem.
I do plan on getting my LVN soon and going into Home Health, seems like a very rewarding path... considering all the 1-1 time you get with your patient, as opposed to a hospital setting - docbob84, on 09/30/2008, -1/+2You're welcome, dumbass patients with skin infections who don't take your full course of antibiotics! I guarantee you that taking half a dose of antibiotics for a staph infection will produce resistance much faster than prescribing amoxicillin for a virus. But yes, both parties are at fault.
- exnoctem, on 10/01/2008, -0/+1I work as a travelling/mobile R.T., and you would be surprised how many facilities i get called into where the staff don't inform me of isolation precautions. Ive found in my travels that most of the care givers in these facilities dont really put any effort into keeping isolation practices.
Seriously, you should see the looks on their faces when i explain to them that i cant touch the patient then my equipment as i could then carry the pathogens with me from facility to facility. God forbid that they help me out or at least warn me before i get there.
You're absolutely right that pre-screening and strict Iso-precautions are key... its just too bad a lot of places ive been to are very lazy about it. - Takfam, on 09/30/2008, -0/+1Did you miss the part where I said I understand the difference? Or are you just that fixated on having to be right all of the time that you didn't even bother to read my answer because I didn't agree with you outright?
- tmc1, on 10/03/2008, -0/+1Hopefully the pediatricians are reading their annals. Now that this is becoming more prevalent. They can't sit on these cases. Unless the we are using peds. are schmucks.
- HonestAbe, on 09/29/2008, -0/+1Just because they both kill bacteria doesn't mean they're the same thing.
If you're worried about bacteria on your hands, wash them in alcohol. Antiseptics don't give a ***** if the bacteria are antibiotic-resistant. Dead bacteria don't mutate. Things designed for external use can be a lot harsher to microbes than things designed for internal use. Antibacterial soap doesn't have penicillin in it; it has triclosan or worse. - docbob84, on 09/30/2008, -0/+1It's pretty common notation to write c-diff. Correct, no. But if the doctors and medical microbiologists do it, it's not that big a deal.
- txchica, on 09/30/2008, -0/+1Wow, I'm sure it's much tougher to control in that setting, the people are more ambulatory, so spreading it would be so much easier. My heart goes out to you, it's tough enough to deal with when it's one patient in their home.
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