All of a sudden, people have started showing up in the office with MRSA. It is freaking people out . . . completely. There have been calls for specialized cleaning services to come to the office and disinfect and decontaminate. Therapists are voicing hesitancy about seeing certain patients. There was even a recommendation by someone (a doctor-type, no less) to CLOSE the office! So, how much of this is reality based fear and how much is hysteria?
I hate to chuckle about a “deadly disease” but I can’t help it (remember, my sense of humor runs to the dark and sarcastic). I first learned about MRSA in medical school . . . 1984 . . . when I did my surgical rotation at the VA hospital in Philadelphia. I distinctly remember one poor GI who was in isolation for who knows how long because his diabetic wounds were contaminated with MRSA and were not healing well. Guys like this would languish in isolation for months . . . often only getting out when they were “discharged to heaven”. I made it my personal mission to get that guy out of isolation before my rotation ended. Every day I was there (which was like every day) I would go into his room and scrub his wounds, his armpits and his crotch with an abrasive antibiotic scrubber. I would put topical antibiotics up his nose and anywhere else I could reach. Boy, was HE glad to see me coming! (Actually, he was. Guys in isolation didn’t get many casual visitors). After repeated positives on the cultures, I finally got a two sets of negative cultures on him the last week I was there and he was ‘sprung’ to a regular ward. I felt good. But was he clear of MRSA. Probably not. And neither was I. We doctor types would joke amongst ourselves that when we are sick in the hospital, they better not culture US for MRSA or we’ll end up positive in isolation as well (I guess that is one way to get a private room!).
My point here is that MRSA is by no means new. It has been recognized for DECADES. The reaction of people is a bit over the top, much like the reaction to any new infectious threat is (all think back to AIDs hysteria, please). The news paper this week ran an article about a whole variety of infectious agents that are developing significant antibiotic resistance. It will be, unfortunately, a more common scenario as we go into the coming decades. So, what do you do about this MRSA thing???
Wash your hands and don’t pick your nose.
Simple, but effective.
Oh, and, by the way, relax . . . and get back to work.
–Dan Hartman, MD
Here Here!! Dr. H.
I too am a healthcare worker that is very upset with the medias latest scare. One news cast had a nervwe to show someone’s leg with a bruise and warn that it is MRSA. PUULLEEEZZZZZEEE!!!! It used to be that MRSA,VRA and MDR were part of the “secret code” of “doctor talk” I’m all for the public being informed but unless the media gives the whole story, they need to stay out of our business. You’re right. This could lead to another “witch hunt” equivalent to to aids scare.
D–
Thanks for your comment. Like I say to my co-workers . . . wash your hands and DONT PICK YOUR NOSE!!! Some things in life are easy. Lets keep them that way.
–DH MD
THANK YOU!!!!! I hate all the media attention that MRSA has been given. Sure information is power, but that power in the wrong hands is destructive. I too am in healthcare (RN), my husband was diagnosed and treated. In fact as a precaution our whole family was treated. My kid went and played with another kid and today the mother of the other kid called me and yelled at me for not telling her that my son DIDN’T have staph. This will be a witch hunt! I explained to her that her son and she have a greater chance of getting a staph infection from playing video games at the arcade they took my son to than playing with my son! Thank you for your post…I’ve gotta go wash my hands, I just picked my nose=)
Gesundheit!!
I had an outbreak of MRSA in october of 07. One of the first confirmed cases in our county in TN. It started as a pimple in my right elbow and grew to the size of an orange in a little under 2 hours. This event placed me in the hospital for 28 continuous days with 11 elbow surgeries followed by iv antibiotics for 2 months. The antibiotics were 1 gram of vancomycin along with 1 gram of maxopene 2 times daily. This infection is so aggresive and resistant that the pick line i had in my collar was actually infected which was discovered when my wife was flushing the line between doses and raised my heart rate to a level that i was rushed to the emergency room and hospitalized yet again. Without a great support system of my wife and my doctor (Dr. Rickey Hutchinson) I would surely have lost my arm and then my life. Now I am experiencing my 3rd such event since 10/07. @nd was on my jaw, this one is on my leg. A person that may be succeptible to this disease should not wait as i have 2 out of 3 of these times. You will suffer significantly more injuries and may also be fatal if you wait. This disease is one that needs to be handled with urgency as in get to your doctor now not wait till in the morning.
Hi yea I totally agree that information is power, but that power in the wrong hands is destructive. I had mrsa a year and a half ago under my left armpit after a breast surgery. My doctor told me I got it from shaving but I don/t believe that. Anyway I recently started worring about it again after resaerching it online. I started beleiving that I would soon die from it that it actually started to control my everyday living. Pictures and seeing that people were dieing from it freaked me out. PLEASE DON/T RESEARCH IT!! DON’T BE LIKE ME!!
Just take care of youself and wash your hands lol yea everytime I itch or pick my nose I wash my hands! try not to over wash then your hands will be red and sore believe me I know