I just responded to a letter in the MRSA Resources forum about a woman who had been forced to quit her job because her co-workers and employer were afraid of getting MRSA from her even though she is very careful with her disease and only returned to work after she was outbreak free. I have thought about this issue a lot and believe many people are going to have to decide how they feel about MRSA in the workplace as the epidemic spreads. I don’t think our disability system is prepared to handle everyone carrying MRSA, yet I don’t think we are prepared to have our dinner served by someone with MRSA either. We dealt with this when AIDS came around and, who thought anyone would be saying this, but MRSA can be more frightening than AIDS since it is so much easier to transmit from one person to another. More and more people are coming to the conclusion that they will have to just keep their illness a secret as we push them out of their present jobs and where will that leave us? We need more education about MRSA and how to avoid it and we also need to instill enough fear in people that they take at least the number one thing that could save their life seriously. Hand washing. Real hand washing. Not the kind where you get soap on your hands and rinse it off but the kind where you wash your hands thoroughly with warm water for as long as it takes to sing Twinkle Twinkle. Places like gyms need to not only have a sign up telling people to wipe down the equipment but they should mention the dangers of MRSA as well so it will be taken seriously and not just as a polite thing to do. Even the people who have MRSA are seldom given any information on how to protect others so the education has to be given from both sides for us all to continue to live together. We’ve come too far to revert back to placing people in Leper Colonies again. We either have to learn to work together or be ready to support a fast growing population of people with CA MRSA. Education is our only hope right now and a lot of it can be free. Word of mouth has always been considered one of the best and least expensive ways of advertising so speak up. Tell everyone you know. Make noise. Make the news. Make something happen to save us all.