MRSA

[Kate M]

I got Staff Infection 10 years ago while having a hip replacement surgery at the local hospital. In my case the bacteria entered my blood stream and also remained on the implant metal body. None of the above "advice" was (is) pertaining to me because the Staff is inside my blood stream and not on my skin. The only physicians who knew how to treat it were Infection Diseases Specialists (those who also treat HIV). Without their treatment I would by gone long ago. In my above post I have summarized my treatment.

I assumed you were speaking from some sort of personal; experience, as you described treatment for a severe systemic infection. Milder, more localized infections usually don't need the big guns. It is important to remember that there are many variables to MRSA infections- location, severity, strain, susceptibility profile, etc. and each may effect treatment choices. I am glad you were successfully treated. MRSA sepsis (infection in the blood stream and spreading throughout the body) carries a mortality rate of 20-50%!

Blessings,

Kate

[tuzacat]

Thank you, All, for taking the time to give me the information! Kate M, I have been doing exactly what you have been talking about in assessing what has to be cleaned up. I appreciate the very clear directions! I have bleach and h202 but need to get the alcohol.

[Kate M]

Thank you, All, for taking the time to give me the information! Kate M, I have been doing exactly what you have been talking about in assessing what has to be cleaned up. I appreciate the very clear directions! I have bleach and h202 but need to get the alcohol.

Excellent! However, if I am understanding you correctly, you really don't need to use all those things together! As a matter of fact, using some different cleaning agents together can make them less effective, or even harmful (as in the case of using bleach and ammonia together-- toxic fumes are created.) Although alcohol-based hand sanitizers are fairly effective (when used properly) to clean hands, I think (can't find proof though!) that bleach is more effective than alcohol on surfaces that can tolerate bleach. Alcohol is not the best to use on surfaces. Also, I seem to recall reading about a study (how's that for unreliable third-hand info?) that showed that re-contamination happened faster on surfaces when H2O2 was used. In any case, my main point is, be careful about using multiple products on the same surface. It is not necessarily better.

Blessings,

Kate

[Thewino]

As a nursing hospital administrator I would like to commend Kate for passing along superb information. As a matter of fact, MRSA used to be an infection that you solely picked up in the hospital. That is not the case any longer as most cases of MRSA are now community acquired.

Please do not feel like you need to utilize straight bleach to kill this infection. That is certainly the wrong approach. And, like Kate mentioned, it isn't nessary to mix cleaning agents. In fact, mixing some agents are toxic. Two tsp. of bleach in a quart of water is sufficient. You will want to clean all areas you have touched, especially high traffic spots like door knobs, light switches, key boards (I know - very hard to clean), kitchen counters, bathroom counters. You get the idea - areas you have touched.

Also, washing your clothes in hot water is sufficient for the items you wear.

As Kate mentioned, if the MRSA actually enters your lungs, you can pass MRSA to others with respiratory droplets. If this happens and you find the need to go out, wearing a mask would be appropriate to protect others. But, try not to go out if possible.

Regular MRSA is a contact type transmission hence the need to clean surfaces and keep your hands clean with warm soapy water or an alcohol based hand sanitizer.

Respiratory MRSA is passed by air droplets so it is passed from one individual to another very easily.

Be well,

TheWino

[jencat824]

I've been MRSA positive for years. In my case, they only treat it prior to my surgeries & yes I'm always put in a private room with MRSA precautions. I got the bug about 20 yrs ago at a really dirty hospital in Indianapolis. I also have arthritis, so maybe the MRSA had something to do with that. Prior to surgeries, treatment for me is a nasal ointment & a round of antibiotics from the quinolone family (I'm only able to take quinolones, I'm allergic to most other antibiotics). I also must be treated prior & after any dental procedures. MRSA is a real headache, but can be dealt with. Kate's great info would have been helpful to me when I became positive. Now, I'm just labeled as positive & pretreated prior to surgeries & dental stuff. I've never known anyone who got on-the-spot treatment, wish I'd had that advice 20 yrs ago.

Jen

[Stormynights]

I've been MRSA positive for years. In my case, they only treat it prior to my surgeries & yes I'm always put in a private room with MRSA precautions. I got the bug about 20 yrs ago at a really dirty hospital in Indianapolis. I also have arthritis, so maybe the MRSA had something to do with that. Prior to surgeries, treatment for me is a nasal ointment & a round of antibiotics from the quinolone family (I'm only able to take quinolones, I'm allergic to most other antibiotics). I also must be treated prior & after any dental procedures. MRSA is a real headache, but can be dealt with. Kate's great info would have been helpful to me when I became positive. Now, I'm just labeled as positive & pretreated prior to surgeries & dental stuff. I've never known anyone who got on-the-spot treatment, wish I'd had that advice 20 yrs ago.

Jen

My mother was in a hospital that has a very good reputation in Tulsa. I learned to take a can of Lysol spray with me. Her room was never clean. On numerous occasions I requested her room to be cleaned. Had to listen to a lot of arguments over whose job it was to clean her room. I still sprayed the phone bedside table light switches and bed rails and everything else I thought we might touch in her room. Hospitals can be nasty. Once I threw a fit over a mess on the floor by her bed and was told she threw up during the night. It was late afternoon and still there. It was both shocking and disgusting. Another argument over whose job it was to clean it up but it got done. House keeping was very rude to me but who cares.

[Triadz]

I went through the MRSA wringer myself. Got my first outbreak after a long spell of prednisone to treat COPD flare ups. Have had oral, IV, and painfull butt shots. I get an outbreak maybe once a year now.
The Dr told me that everyone has this in their body and a weakened immune system makes you more likely to have an outbreak. Prednisone can weaken the immune system over time.

[Todzo]

I think our current "kill them all" approach to disease is more the cause than the cure of such disease.

See: http://www.amazon.com/Honor-thy-Symbion ... in_title_0

[Kate M]

The Dr told me that everyone has this in their body and a weakened immune system makes you more likely to have an outbreak.

Well, that is not quite true, although the second part of your sentence is right on the money. A significant percentage of people have been colonized with staph aureus, but it is not even the majority let alone "everyone." Of those who do have S aureus, only a small percentage have a Methicillin resistant strain of staph aureus.

In 2010, a study was done of healthcare workers, who, one would expect (correctly) to have a higher prevalence of colonization due to their ongoing repeated exposures to those with infections. Of 256 healthcare workers studied, S. aureus was isolated in, 43.8% of them, which is significantly higher than was previously reported in the general public. (I can't find those numbers right now, sorry!)

Of the S aureus isolated, only 15.2% were MRSA. Here is the prevalence that was outlined in the study, and these numbers are higher than the general public So I'm afraid your physician may have fibbed to you a little maybe so you wouldn't worry Or you may have misunderstood him.

S Aureus
ALL HCPs 112/256 or 43.8% / MRSA 17/256 or 6.6%
Paramedics 30/52 or 57.7%/ MRSA 1/52 or 1.9%
Nurses 51/124 or 41.1% / MRSA 13/124 or 10.5%
Clerical Workers 11/28 or 39.3%/ MRSA or 1/28 3.6%
Physicians 20/52 or 38.5% / MRSA 2/52 or 3.8%

(As an aside, I was quite shocked when I learned in January that a culture of my nares was negative for staph, as I assumed that just about ALL nurses would be positive for staph and likely MRSA too! When I researched this data I was surprised that the numbers weren't even higher, but I was less impressed with my own negative culture

Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20426580

[RandyJ]

Control III can be purchased from cpap.com, just follow directions for dilution with water for cleaning mask parts, hoses etc.

[tuzacat]

Well, I spent yesterday doing a major clean-up around here. Washed everything that I could think of I touch from the phone to my keys to the steering wheel in the car; every knob and handle - first with lysol disinfectant wipes with H202 and then came back with bleach water on the surfaces that could handle it. Did a thorough cleanse of all my equipment. Washed all my sheets in hot water. Kate, I didn't mix the chemicals - I had that lovely experience by accident when I was a teenager and nearly asphyxiated myself. I did order the Control III and I guess I'm going to be walking around with hand-sanitizer in my pocket.

This seems like it's going to be a slow process. The inside of my nose still feels uncomfortable although a little less than before the antibiotics. I guess I'm a little concerned that they won't work. I read that colloidal silver kills MRSA so I'm going to try swabbing with that since my Dr. didn't prescribe anything topically.

I'm very grateful for all of your comments!

[avi123]

As I mentioned in my posts above I am an ex staff- infection example. MRSA is Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection that is caused by a strain of staph bacteria that's become resistant to the antibiotics commonly used to treat ordinary staph infections. In this case the infection is in the blood stream (SEPSIS Syndrome) and it does often lead to death. The community acquired MRSA is mostly on the skin and is not dangerous as long as it does not reach the blood stream.

I have yet to read, in the medical literature, that CPAP users are in danger by being exposed to MRSA if it enters their lungs. What's the difference if these persons inhale the MRSA from the air in the community vs. the CPAP air hose?

The post above about hospitals not causing staff infection anymore is, imo, sheer nonsense. Most hospitals don't want to disclose the information about their rates, for example, for those who came down with Staff Infections after joint replacement surgeries at their places. They would not disclose it even to the Consumer Reports when it came out with a special report on it in 2012.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012 ... /index.htm

I had to supply Consumer Reports with some information on it. That the rate in a major hospital in the capital city of NC (in which I had my hip joint replaced) has been at that time around 1% annually, just for hip and knee joints replacement. Think about it: the FDA, in the last few years, removed certain Rxs from the market b/c they had rates below 0.5% for serious side effects. After my talking about it to the chief medical director of this hospital, suddenly, you could see hand sanitizers placed by the doors of all patients rooms. BTW, all hospital staff that come in contact with patients do use the sanitizers, but many physicians refuse to do so.

[SleepyonMagnoliaSt]

I too wonder how CPAP users would be more prone to MRSA of the lungs, especially since studies show that 50% of people with cellphone have MRSA ON their cellphones. Meaning you can breathe that in very easily.

OP PLEASE wipe down your phones and cellphones

[Todzo]

Needed - more good germs:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/magaz ... d=all&_r=0

http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/121-a118/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21407241

[Kate M]

especially since studies show that 50% of people with cellphone have MRSA ON their cellphones. Meaning you can breathe that in very easily.

Can you supply a source for this number? I find the percentage shockingly high. A study that I saw found ~ 12.5% cell phones collected in a Turkish hospital from patients, visitors and staff had MRSA. This has been considered a frighteningly high number. Your number is 4x that! I would love to know what the source of it is.

Thanks!

Kate