Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) causing illness in and out of hospitals
According to the CDC, Scripps-Howard and the St. Petersburg Times Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is found not only in hospitals and other health-care facilities, where it is deadliest, responsible for more than 70 percent of all hospital staph infections and killing some 20,000 Americans annually. MRSA started turning up outside hospitals in the late 1990s in schools, gyms and military barracks, evolving into community-associated MRSA, or CA-MRSA. Now a new study published this month says that strain is bouncing back into hospitals, increasing the infection risk to the most vulnerable people.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 14 percent of people with MRSA have the community-associated strain. Many are young. A Minnesota study found that the average age of a CA-MRSA patient is 23, compared to 68 for other MRSA patients. Starting in the late 1990s, most cases of CA-MRSA were linked to places like gyms and schools where people are in close proximity and might share exercise equipment, bathroom and shower facilities, razors, towels, uniforms and other clothing. A study in the December issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases suggests that health-care workers, who often move between outpatient clinics and inpatient hospital rooms, may be dragging the bacteria with them and infecting hospitalized patients.
What is MRSA?
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Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a bacteria that can cause terrible skin infections, pneumonia, blood poisoning, even death. It is resistant to common antibiotics, like penicillin, making it difficult to treat.
How to protect yourself:
-- Wash hands frequently.
-- Use alcohol-based hand sanitizer when you can't wash.
-- Bandage wounds and cuts until healed.
-- Avoid contact with bandages, infected skin of others.
-- Wipe down shared gym equipment before and after use.
-- Clean shared surfaces, then use disinfectant or bleach solution.
-- Wash and machine-dry laundry that contacts infected skin.
-- Don't share personal items such as towels and razors.
-- If you develop a painful sore that looks like a pimple or boil, seek medical attention.
