Top Doc: Staph "The Cockroach Of Bacteria"

CDC Head Says MRSA Infections Can Be Avoided With Common Sense Hygiene

(AP)  Drug-resistant staph infections that have made headlines in recent weeks come from what one of the nation's top doctors calls “the cockroach of bacteria” -- a bad germ that can lurk in lots of places, but not one that should trigger panic.

“This isn't something just floating around in the air,” Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told members of Congress on Wednesday.

It takes close contact -- things like sharing towels and razors, or rolling on the wrestling mat or football field with open scrapes, or not bandaging cuts -- to become infected with the staph germ outside of a hospital, she said.

Called MRSA, the staph germ is preventable largely by commonsense hygiene, Gerberding stressed.

“Soap and water is the cheapest intervention we have, and it's one of the most effective,” she told a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

At issue is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a form of the incredibly common staph family of germs.

About one in every three people carries staph aureus in their noses. In about 1 million people, the type they carry is MRSA.

“I like to think of it as the cockroach of bacteria,” Gerberding said, pointing out MRSA's ability to live on various surfaces and spread by catching a ride on an unwashed hand.

---

Why aren’t the feds fighting MRSA harder? Wyatt Andrews reports.

---

Over time, germs evolve to withstand treatment. Most staph is no longer treatable by the granddaddy of antibiotics, penicillin. By the 1960s, staph also began developing resistance to a second antibiotic, methicillin.

So MRSA is not a new problem. What is new is public anxiety about it.

MRSA mostly causes skin infections, such as boils and abscesses. But it can sometimes spread to cause life-threatening blood infections. Last month, the CDC reported the first national estimate of serious MRSA infections - 94,000 a year. It's not clear how many people die, but one estimate put the MRSA death toll at more than 18,000, slightly higher than U.S. deaths from AIDS.

There are two distinct strains of MRSA, a type spread in hospitals and other health facilities and a genetically different type spread in communities. The vast majority of victims are hospital patients; only 14 percent of serious MRSA infections are the kind spread in the community.

But the CDC's report coincided with the death of a 17-year-old Virginia high school student, prompting a spate of reports of MRSA infections in schools. That prompted lawmakers to pepper Gerberding with questions Wednesday:

Should schools close for cleaning if a student gets MRSA? That's not medically necessary, Gerberding said. Bleach and a list of other germicides can be used in routine cleaning of areas and equipment where bacteria cluster.

“There's no need to go in and disinfect a whole school because that isn't how this organism is transmitted,” she said.

How worried should parents be? Some 200 children a year will get serious MRSA, and the vast majority will be treated successfully, Gerberding said. Community-spread MRSA is still easily treated by many other routine antibiotics. So wash and bandage cuts, and seek prompt medical care if they show signs of infection.

Most outbreaks of community-spread MRSA occur not in schools but in prisons, where inmates share toiletries and lack or don't use soap.

Should every patient entering a hospital be tested for MRSA, and isolated if they harbor it? Some hospitals have begun that, but current guidelines call for that step only if hospitals fail to reduce MRSA infections by less drastic means, Gerberding said.

Her concern: “Patients in isolation get less care.” Doctors and nurses check on them less. They get more bed sores, opening the body to other life-threatening germs.

There is a biological conundrum: Hospital-based MRSA is more common, vulnerable to fewer antibiotics than the strain spread in communities, and those already-ill patients are more likely to die from it. Yet, the community strain of MRSA may be somewhat stronger, possibly explaining why otherwise healthy people sometimes succumb.

It's a strain called USA300, and if it penetrates the skin it can cause key immune cells - white blood cells - to explode, setting off a chain reaction of inflammation, Gerberding explained. This strain, unlike most hospital MRSA, also produces a toxin known as PVL, and scientists are furiously investigating its role.

New antibiotics are important, but won't solve MRSA or the myriad other drug-resistant bacteria, she said.

Germs “will always be one step ahead of our drugstores,” Gerberding said. “We have to get back to the basics” - wash your hands and cover your cuts.

[forptsafety]

I find it alarming and frightening that the head of the CDC admits that %u201CPatients in isolation get less care.%u201D Doctors and nurses check on them less. They get more bed sores, opening the body to other life-threatening germs.
She''s saying don''t put patients in isolation? Shouldn''t she be saying "Hospitals need to be held accountable for testing patients for MRSA and if they are MRSA-positive and have to be put in isolation, then it''s imperative that hospitals provide the staffing and high-level of care that MRSA patients need and deserve to recover."?
I believe if you do get MRSA in a hospital, god help you because the reality is that you are indeed at high risk for sepsis, serious complications and even death.

[ghoundcrazy]

I hope no one is believing comments by me4prezz or fpmummolo because they are ignorant. I am a microbiologist, I have a bachelor''s degree in lab science. I see MRSA every *** day in the hospital I work for plus I am two weeks away from presenting a research project on it. We are not taking about a bug that only hates one drug so the other drug you just have to take at home as directed. The drugs mentioned by me4prezz have to be given IV in a HOSPITAL. MRSA is resistant to CLASSES of antibiotics. You obviously have no idea what you are talking about, because if you read books about it and work with it for a living, like I have and do, you wouldn''t be ignorant.

MRSA is big business, eh? News to me. And in 2008, insurance companies and medicare will no longer reimburse for treatment in hospital acquired infections. Bet they will buy into that amazing and cheap molecular level of technology you''ve obviously heard about on an episode of CSI or ER.

I despise ignorance.

[oscarez]

Bacteria microphase may be used to treat MRSA Staphylococcus.

[alphaa10-2009]

Another point about MRSA-- in medical parlance, a patient is never "cured" of MRSA. All most physicians are allowed to say is a patient has completed a course of antibiotic therapy.

Even after antibiotic therapy is complete, MRSA is suspected of hiding in a patient''s body. The latent infection may manifest in a number of debilitating symptoms ranging from depression to fatigue, not to mention progressive damage to vital organ systems.

This is why a healthy immune response is the only silver bullet we have, and the USA300 strain appears to threaten that, too.

Nice try, Dr. Gerberding, but perhaps in this case, public panic about MRSA is more realistic.

[alphaa10-2009]

abigail4476 said, "... this is the stupidest article I have ever read... obviously the NICU nurses didn''''t sterilize their hands or his environment..."
---
Hospitals routinely pass along MRSA to patients-- in and out of the ICU/NICU. All it takes is one slip up, and the disease is passed along. But try asking a hospital to admit it has a problem...

MRSA doesn''t glow in the dark, so it sprads easily from contact point to contact point. A contagion like this must be handled with care and consistent sterile practice. I have observed hourly employees use the same BP cuff from room to room, and even doctors drape the same stethoscope from patient to patient.

Yet another case where even casual negligence is lethal.

[abigail4476]

I''m sorry, but this is the stupidest article I have ever read. My husband is one of the most scrupulously clean people I know, and he had a terrible staph infection that lasted for several months when we were first married. My son contracted staph in the neonatal ward after his birth, along with 2 other infants, and nearly died from it--and they wash their hands ALL THE TIME We had to scrub down before we could even see him.

And nice job making folks think a staph infection is a "dirty disease." *sigh* I want to know if I should sue the hospital for the medical bills they charged me when my son was in the hospital and extra 10 days after his premature birth. Obviously the NICU nurses didn''t sterilize their hands or his environment. So, ergo, it is their fault that he had a lengthy stay.

And again I say: Stupid Article.

[jerr11]

Top Doc: Staph "The Cockroach Of Bacteria"



Top Doc: Cheney "The Cockroach Of Politicians"

[nearl4511]

It is funny how the public health sector keep up the mom and apple pie mantra to assure the public.

Is there a worldwide problem with MSRA? Not really.

The answer is NOT in washing hands; it is in getting rid of all competing bacteria. Can''t live without some bacteria you know....needed for health and digestion.

Recall that the VAST MAJORITY of MSRA cases are with health care patients and workers, WHERE THE ENVIRONMENTS ARE ALREADY SANITIZED.

Silly. What do you think? Hopspital workers don''t wash their hands enough. NO..they''ve wiped out all the more repsonsive bacteria and these are the ones left.

Get rid of that antibacterial soap at home and wash repsonsibly. Don''t wash all the oils out of your skin or it will crack and provide an entrance for these buggers.

[jerr11]

Top Doc: Staph "The Cockroach Of Bacteria"


Bush "The Cockroach of Republicans"

[drinuk]

The responsibility for these super bugs lies firmly at the door of Big Pharma and their over used anti-biotics.
Following Cancer and Aids they have created yet another nice little earner, the only clean up going on here is on their bottom line.

We are approaching Pharmageddon at a rapid pace.

[me4prezz]

MRSA can be treated with vancomycin, gentamicin, or a host of other antibiotics. It is resistant to one antibiotic. They will do a culture and sensitivity and determine what medication the antibotic is resistant to and what it is vulnerable to. Then, you are started on an antibiotic that the culture and sensitivity (C&S) states it is sensitive to. That should cure the bacteria when taken AS DIRECTED. That is where people are getting in trouble, however. If you only take an anbiotic until you feel better and stop, that bacteria has gotten a taste for that medicine and will build a resistance to it making it less likely to be killed off by it during the next course of antibiotics. Be sure to wash hands, clean clothes, cover cuts and scrapes and use common sense. Take all medication exactly as prescribed and for the length of time indicated. That will stop a lot of the resistance we see as well as the spread of this infection.

[fpmummolo]

MRSA is big business for hospitals. It is estimated to cost the tax payers 30 billion per year and that is a conservative number. Hospitals have the tools available to stop MRSA and other bacteria/viruses at a molecular level for $8.00 per room/O.R. They will not buy into the technology because they are paid by Medicare/Medicaid, and Health insurance companies to treat it. Why would they want to cut off a 30 billion dollar payday?