To the doctors like mine who claim there are not people dying of MRSA, it is in the news today that there were 18650 deaths due to MRSA in the US in 2005, while here in 2007 we are still looking at the tip of the iceberg. I read of a suggestion in the MRSA Resources site this morning that suggested we all get together for a walk across America or something to bring more awareness to this disease ravaging our country. I don’t know about the long walk but a National awareness program is an excellent idea. We already have an awareness month but it doesn’t seem to even catch the medical community’s attention. Any ideas anyone?? They can be posted her or at the MRSA Resources site.
Have a great day out there and keep your noses clean!

Last year when I was trying to get my doctor to test me for MRSA last year after several gross exposures to the disease and I mentioned all of the people I find listed on MRSA Resources who have died from it she said, “Oh, really, Rhoda, people are not dying from MRSA! It is everywhere!” Well, she was right that it is everywhere but I just read an article about a 17 year old Staunton River High school football player who just died from complications of MRSA in Bedford County, Virginia that might need to be brought to her attention and to any one else’s who is still complacent about this growing epidemic.
How many more will die before doctors like her stop downplaying this issue and start taking all of the preventative action they can??? This is also a doctor at the clinic I have mentioned before where they do no more than roll out clean table paper to clean the examining rooms between patients. It is the UMC Baker’s Place Clinic in Omaha, Nebraska if you want to know where to bring your own can of Lysol…..

I just read an article abot a doctor at Mt. Sinai Medical Center who was suspended for not complying with the hand washing rules which have been in place since September 2004 with what I find to have been disturbing results. In three years they are still working on this problem there and you can’t help but wonder what hand washing is like at hospitals that aren’t trying to comply to the rules at Mt. Sinai. I have foolishly assumed in the past that doctors would always wash their hands between patients just to protect themselves!! I have since then seen a doctor come into my MRSA infected daughter’s room and leave without ever washing his hands several times.
We have to do what they don’t. I also have noticed in a clinic I was going to that the only cleaning they did between patients was to roll out some fresh paper on the examining table. So I touch as little of any surface in a clinic as I can and wash wash wash before I leave and after I get home. If they won’t protect us we have to protect ourselves!

I have found a website with MRSA posters available for those who are interested in them:

Rhoda

My daughter’s MRSA remission ended last week with the eruption of a huge boil on her upper thigh. I took her to the same ER I took her to a year ago when she had her first outbreak, when they diagnosed her with spider bites. We were curious how much more they knew about CA-MRSA by now.
Her boil had to be lanced, drained and packed and she screamed like I’ve never heard during the procedure. After the doctor was done we asked if they were seeing others with CA-MRSA now and he said that he had three in the waiting room right then with boils that needed lanced and that he sees at least one every day. That is how much this disease has spread in the Omaha area in just the last year.
It is wonderful that enough doctors her know about CA-MRSA now so we can get better treatment but it6 is definitely frightening how quickly it is spreading and still not a word about it in our local news. I guess I’ll keep telling them about it until they decide it is a timeworthy story!!!!

I just discovered that Robin Cook’s latest book, Critical, deals with a MRSA epidemic. In the book a woman, Laurie Montgomery, investigates the cause of the epidemic and it will be interesting to see how well MR. Cook knows MRSA and what we might learn from his research and conclusions.
I am just glad that Robin Cook took this on as a subject as it will help spread the word and maybe instill a little more fear of what the real MRSA epidemic can become.

Researchers contaminated coins with MRSA and found that the MRSA bugs survived after two weeks of storage at room temperature. Things like this seem to almost make people act less afraid instead of more afraid. Like the doctors you talk to who shrug at MRSA and say “Oh well we are all carrying it” like there is nothing to be done. But none of this changes our very real number one defense: handwashing. It is not new to anyone that money is dirty. Hopefully people will take studies like this as a reason to remember to wash their hands thoroughly and not to get the idea that there is nothing we can do since it is everywhere. It may be everywhere, but I don’t have a big boil from it yet and I still plan to do all I can to avoid even having one of them. I hope you do, too.

I have been ill for the last two months and have not written but I am finally better and catching up on the MRSA news. Unfortunately it looks like not too much has changed except it is spreading more. My daughter has been in remission for two months and we are hoping that it never returns.
I met a young man who had just had a beautiful tattoo on his arm that had a funny looking hole along one of the lines. I told him it looked like MRSA and then didn’t see him for two months. When I next saw him he had been to a doctor and treated the MRSA but the tattoo was ruined, covered in deep scars from the many boils that erupted along every line. He had gone to a friend for the tattoo. IF you are considering a tattoo please make sure and use a reputable place. I know people who are now buying and taking their own needle sets to get tattooed and it is not a bad idea but keep in mind that it doesn’t have to come from the needles. The artist might be infected himself and still pass the microbes on to you even wearing gloves if he happens to touch his nose (where the MRSA microbes reside) and then continues working on you. Myself I think my tattoo days are over!!!!
Take care all and I hope to find some good news to report here soon.

There have been numerous reports coming out of Europe about a new strain of MRSA spreading like wildfire. It has developed among intensively farmers animals on the continent according to a new report from the Soil Association.
In the Netherlands, which was though to be eradicated of MRSA, 40% of dutch pigs and 50% of Dutch pig farmers have been found to carry farm-animal MRSA caused by hight levels of antibiotics used in intensive farming. This new strain of MRSA has developed among intensively farmed pigs, chickens, and other livestock on the Continent Farm animal MRSA has already transferred to farmers. farm workers and their families in the Netherlands, causing serious health impacts. 40% of Dutch pigs and 50% of pig farmers have been found to carry farm animal related MRSA.
In the Netherlands, farm animal MRSA has been found in 20% of pork, 21% of chicken and 3% of beef on sale to the public. It has not yet been found in the UK livestock or meat products, neither the government nor the FSA area carrying surveys to find out seeing no need for more wide scale testing.
“There is no current evidence that food-producing animals form a reservoir. Of MRSA infections in the UK.
What I have not found about this is exactly what the new strain of MRSA is and how differently it might treat a person. What kind of MRSA are they talking about? Getting boils or some kind of flesh eating disease of just indigestion, (doubtful!). I will be searching for this information.
I really hope this is a paranoid though process and not the way it will go at all.

June 26, 2007 the results and implications from the first nationwide MRSA Prevalence Study will be discussed at APIC’s 34th Annual Conference & International meeting. This [prevalence study exceeded all previous estimates and will provide out first picture of the threat MRSA poses to patients in facilities. This included all patients including acute care, cancer, cardiac, pediatric, rehabilitation and long term care. This Prevalence Study was financed by the APIC and data from more than 1,200 healthcare facilities in all fifty states was used to determine the current threat of MRSA.There have been a few national MRSA estimates that were limited in scope and size and therefore inaccurate.
Journalists wishing to participate in the press briefing in person or by telephone and/or arrange interviews please cal Jonathan Osmundsen at 202-261-2869, email Jonathan.Osmundsen@mslpr.com