Perilous Bug Is Creeping Onto the Streets

[Placebo]

Drug-resistant staph infections, once largely confined to hospitals, are far more common in the general population than previously thought, according to a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study examined more than 1,600 cases of the infection caused by a strain of Staphylococcus aureus in Baltimore, Atlanta and Minnesota. Nearly one-fourth of those patients required hospitalization.

In recent years, the potentially deadly infection has been detected in jail inmates, sexually active gay men and professional athletes.

The latest study, conducted by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and several other institutions, confirmed that the organism was now circulating widely in the general population.

More...

Not good. :(

[LSparkle]

1. Ye Gawd -- where's my Purell?

[Fridays Child]

6. Here's what you want to be using...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3438610&mesg_id=3442085

[Jesus Saves]

2. What do you do to avoid staph infections?

[etherealtruth]

3. Wash you hands with soap and water ...

... very frequently... that's about the best you can do.

[Warpy]

4. Spend your life swathed in cotton batting

and avoid all sharp objects.

Seriously, staph is one of the most common infections out there. MRSA, the drug resistant variety, can generally be fought of eventually by people with healthy immune systems, and bacitracin is still effective for superficial skin infections.

Maybe this constant alarm being sounded will free up some NIH grant money from all that limp dick research and put it back into new antibiotic development. Right now, there are NO new antibiotics being considered, and that is appalling.

[CottonBear]

5. Wash your hands all the time and don't touch your face.

I got MRSA last year. I battled it for 3 months. It was incredibly painful (4 Lortabs every day for a week) and I was left with a nasty scar which will require plastic surgery to repair.

Apparently, now it's just not something you pick up in the hospital, nursing home or gym. MRSA is a "community" disease, meaning you can get it from touching a contaminated object practically anywhere. When I was diagnosed, 17 other people in my city had a reported "community" form of MRSA. (This data was from the local infectious disease specialist.)

I found out that 3 friends in other states got it as well about the same time that I did. One was hospitalized. I was on the verge of going into the hospital for surgery and IV antibiotics if I didn't respond to the massive doses of 3 different antibiotics simultaneously.
:scared:

Go to the CDC website. It will scare the crap out of you. :scared:

[Us vs Them]

7. Isn't that what the CDC is there to do?

Be afraid of things! Look out, Anthrax!!!

[bonito]

8. heres what we do to stop those infections

colloidal silver.for respirtory infections mostly for staph mrsa,p.aeruginosa and bacterial. long story how we got here, but this stuff works.

[found object]

9. there is another theory

Thinking about the long term health of your immune system is believed to be key in fighting infections. Viruses get more and more resistant to the ever increasing potency of viral drugs and the over-sanitization of the environment you live in (your home, school, and so on...) Try avoiding anti-bacterial soaps for starters, then go out and get your hands dirty, that is do some gardening or what ever it takes to get some 'dirt under your finger nails' --don't be afraid to try this. Also stay off the pharmaceuticals when symptoms are minor.

[Jesus Saves]

10. thanks for the advice everyone

I wash my hands all the time. And I do garden, etc....don't use anti-bacterial soaps very often.

And I keep my immune system healthy.

[KlatooBNikto]

11. For a while I thought this post was about Tom DeLay.