Disheartening news from the war on CA-MRSA

[DarklingAlice]

To those who are interested the war on community associated MRSA is not going well. Research like this highlights the need for new, effective therapies. We have become too dependent on traditional antibiotics to solve our problems and without renewed innovation in the medical field this could get ugly(er).

Community-associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus  Strains in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

For those without the time to spend on the numbers, I think the article's authors sum it up well:

Overall, we found that epidemic CA-MRSA strains are likely endemic to PICUs. These virulent and transmissible strains are entering the PICU through infected or colonized patients, they are being transmitted to children, and they are responsible for hospital-onset MRSA infections. CA-MRSA strains often colonize children without healthcare-associated risk factors. Traditional infection-control strategies, in which risk factors are used to target high-risk patients for screening and intervention, may prove insufficient for MRSA. Future studies to determine optimal approaches to control MRSA transmission in hospitalized children are needed. As CA-MRSA strains enter the hospital environment, the increased frequency of methicillin resistance and the coexistence of multiple strain types may lead to the selection of novel MRSA strains with enhanced capacity for transmission and infection. These conditions would be especially concerning with regard to children, for whom a more restricted antimicrobial drug arsenal is available. Sound epidemiologic investigation and feasible interventions are needed to control MRSA and protect hospitalized children.

[Trieste]

Oh, dear. :(

[The Dark Raven]

From someone whose best friend's son has CF and carries MRSA in his nose...  If your kid has MRSA, stay at home and call in to the doc for meds unless absolutely necessary to go to the hospital.  It cuts down on the community based MRSA, since the kids with the MRSA are not in the hospital in the active phase.  It probably would also help if a kid is in the hospital for MRSA and they are quarantined...and the nurses remember that MRSA gets on them as they go from room to room.

As a pending MLT in a school with nursing students, I can almost guarantee you it's not the patient/family or the lab personnel that are the vector...

*facepalms*

Rule 1: Wash your hands!! *giggles*

[Oniya]

Outside the human body, MRSA is just as susceptible to disinfectants as any other bacteria.  Like E. coli, it's when it gets places it doesn't belong that it's a problem.

[DarklingAlice]

Outside the human body, MRSA is just as susceptible to disinfectants as any other bacteria.  Like E. coli, it's when it gets places it doesn't belong that it's a problem.

Well, not any other bacteria. Bacterial vulnerability to disinfectants is going to vary wildly depending on the constitution of their capsule, cell wall, cell membrane and other structural factors. This is what allows them to live in a multitude of absurdly hostile environments. But that is nit-picking, as yes MRSA is just as susceptible as any other bacteria that tends to thrive within the same environmental parameters as we do and infect us. Alcohol sterilization has been shown to be effective on MRSA and is a great line of defence.

And you are exactly right. The harm that bacteria do depends on them getting to where they don't belong. Most everyone has staphylococcus aureus on their skin. And you most likely touch hundreds of things every day carrying a load of bacteria that if it became entrenched in the wrong place at the wrong time could cause serious medical problems. Bacteria are like cattle. It isn't so much that they are out to get you, but more that if they get into the wrong place they will A)consume useful nutrients, and/or B)excrete a ton of waste.