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Staph infections cause for concern in county |
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Wednesday, 07 November 2007 |
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Page 1 of 2 By Buck Traxler, I-O Editor
There is a new/old “watchword” for staph infections that is causing some concern in the county and a lot of concern in other parts of the U.S.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is sweeping the country. Officials have shortened the name down with an acronym MRSA, which is pronounced MERSA.
MRSA was first identified in the 1960s and was mainly found in hospitals (old), now it appears in school systems, the community and with pets (new), most commonly dogs.
Is it panic time or a case of just being over cautious?
A school district in Kentucky this week shut down all 23 of its schools, affecting approximately 10,300 students to disinfect their entire facilities, a project that will take in classrooms, locker rooms, even busses and outdoor areas because one student had a case of MRSA.
Commenting on the Kentucky school district, Pondera County Health Nurse Cynthia Grubb felt, “That may be overblown a bit, education is still the best weapon.”
In New York, a veterinarian reports 19 cases of MRSA in dogs over the past year. There is even a name for the drug-resistant staph infection in pets, “reverse zoonosis.”
Grubb explains that, “MRSA is a type of staph that is resistant to antibiotics called beta-lactams.”
Beta-lactam antibiotics include methicillin and more common antibiotics such as penicillin, oxacillin, and amoxicillin.
MRSA may cause sores that look and feel like spider bites, but they are not caused by a spider bite. They may be large, red painful bumps under the skin, better known as boils, or it can be a cut that is swollen, hot or warm to the touch, and filled with pus.
Staph infections, including MRSA, show up mostly among people in hospitals and healthcare facilities, such as nursing homes, who have weaker immune systems.
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