This is an exciting article.  I am so interested in this research.  Anything is an improvement that will make nursing and patient care safer.  Right now in our hospitals and out in our communities, we have a stew of superbugs brewing.  These are really nasty organisms that can create serious illness and death.  I am very happy to find research that is addressing this issue in a way that may have really practical applications.

Nurses wash their hands so often that they actually provide cracks in the skin for these bugs to enter.  This would be so much better for nurses.

Please feel free to read this article and leave me a comment.

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The prototype device can kill off bacteria, viruses, and fungi in just seconds

Researchers have demonstrated a prototype device that can rid hands, feet, or even underarms of bacteria, including the hospital superbug MRSA.

The device works by creating something called a plasma, which produces a cocktail of chemicals in air that kill bacteria but are harmless to skin.

A related approach could see the use of plasmas to speed the healing of wounds.

Writing in the New Journal of Physics, the authors say plasmas could help solve gum disease or even body odour.

Plasmas are known as the fourth state of matter, after solid, liquid, and gas. They are a soup of atoms that have had their electrons stripped off by, for example, a high voltage.

Plasmas are common elsewhere in the cosmos, where high-energy processes produce them, and they are even posited as a potential source of fusion energy. Their properties have recently been harvested for use in plasma televisions.

Deadly cocktail

But the new research focuses on so-called cold atmospheric plasmas.

Rather than turning a whole group of atoms into plasma, a more delicate approach strips the electrons off just a few, sending them flying.

You can even make it battery operated so you can use small devices – I have one in my hand right now Gregor Morfill Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics

Collisions with nearby, unchanged atoms slows down the electrons and charged atoms or ions they leave behind.

It has been known for some time that the resulting plasma is harmful to bacteria, viruses, and fungi – the approach is already used to disinfect surgical tools.

“It’s actually similar to what our own immune system does,” said Gregor Morfill, of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, who led the research.

“The plasma produces a series of over 200 chemical reactions that involve the oxygen and nitrogen in air plus water vapour – there is a whole concoction of chemical species that can be lethal to bacteria,” he told BBC News.

Professor Morfill and his colleagues have worked out the precise details of the plasma production that effectively kills off such bugs without doing harm to skin, and demonstrated a number of prototype devices that do the job efficiently.

“To produce plasmas efficiently at low cost so you can really mass produce these things for hospitals, that’s the big breakthrough of the last year,” Professor Morfill said.

The team says that an exposure to the plasma of only about 12 seconds reduces the incidence of bacteria, viruses, and fungi on hands by a factor of a million – a number that stands in sharp contrast to the several minutes hospital staff can take to wash using traditional soap and water.

More applications

Professor Morfill said that the approach can be used to kill the bacteria that lead to everything from gum disease to body odour.

Hospital staff can spend hours cleaning hands by traditional means

“The idea is scalable to any size, it can be produced in any shape; it’s very flexible,” he said.

“You can even make it battery-operated so you can use small devices – I have one in my hand right now.”

A similar approach, using the element argon instead of plain air, has been demonstrated for application directly to wounds, and initial indications are that it speeds healing.

Michael Kong, a bioelectrics engineering researcher at Loughborough University, said it remains unclear whether those effects are through the chemical cocktail that the plasma produces, or simply from the effect of reducing the number of bacteria crowding a wound.

“Either way, it is still a very important breakthrough,” Professor Kong told BBC News.

“The ideas are not new – but only recently, collectively, has this community of researchers come up with plasma sources that achieve disinfection but also have minimal impact on skin cells.”

Professor Morfill said that more testing of the devices is necessary before they end up in widespread use, but he said that there is already significant interest from industry.

Here’s the link to the original article.

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As hospitals push staff more and more about hand-washing and aseptic technique, I believe that we also need to beef up our “housekeeping” abilities.  I know that as a microbiology student, I had to swab various places touched daily by others and then see what I could grow in the petri dish.  I was amazed, but the worst offender was the telephone that was used in the offices.  Now, with the big push toward computerized health data, nurses find themselve frequently using computer keyboards in common areas.  These items are not touched by our housekeepers, just like the phones and doorknobs are not sanitized.

With the growing problem of pandemics, maybe we all need to just go back to basics and remember how to really clean things.  This article is just a springboard on this topic.  It is interesting that someone was able to take our lack of cleanliness and create a marketable item for sale.  Nurses, put on your thinking caps!

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NEW YORK, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ — Engineer/pilot/attorney Jon Roberts, PhD, has dozens of inventions to his credit. They include technology that thwarts piracy in movie theatres, gadgets that track important items inadvertently left behind, devices to enhance airport security and even an electronic matchmaker that alerts two nearby individuals with similar interests that they have, indeed, found their match. Now, as Chairman and VP R&D of VirWall Systems Inc., he’s introducing a keyboard sanitizer that uses UV-C light to eradicate bacteria and viruses on computer keyboards in about 45 seconds, for under a hundredth of a penny per exposure. The invention is featured in the November issue of the New Jersey Technology Council’s LifeSciTrends, an update on important health and technological advances.

“I started studying patterns of infection transmission years ago when my son started bringing home a never-ending series of bacteria and viruses from kindergarten. I don’t think we’d ever had as many colds or coughs in succession,” explains Dr. Roberts.

Today Dr. Roberts has parlayed his study of vectors of disease transmission into the design of a streamlined, efficient keyboard sanitizer that stops 99.99+ percent of bacteria and viruses before they can become hitchhiking pathogens. It is effective against influenza A (the family of which H1N1 is a member), staph, strep, salmonella, MRSA, E. coli, norovirus, Avian flu, the common cold and more.

“When you consider that the average computer keyboard can harbor as many as 3000 microbes per square inch, you’ve got a real problem on your hands – literally,” notes Dr. Roberts. In 2008 the CDC reported the first documented case of norovirus transmitted by computer keyboards and peripherals in a school system. In other settings – such as hospitals — contaminated keyboards can pose significant threats to patients and healthcare professionals alike since the resident pathogens may be more virulent and patients are less able to ward off such infections.

“Anywhere you have shared computers,” explains VirWall’s President/CEO, Donald S. Hetzel, PhD, “you also have shared germs. When people eat near their computers, the problem is compounded. Bacteria love to feed and breed on our crumbs.”

The VirWall KBS-1 is a lightweight, high tech lid that fits over a standard-size keyboard and uses 254-260 nanometers of UV-C wavelength to deactivate potential pathogens. The sanitizer provides uniform coverage in killing microbes, unlike disinfectant sprays and wipes that are user-dependent. The invention recently earned a medal for innovation in healthcare devices and the Yankee “Green” Award for its ability to kill germs with a novel mechanism that avoids the use of chemical disinfectants which some believe to pose environmental damage over time.

The sanitizer will retail for about $100. VirWall also holds patents for a portfolio of additional protective products including a bio-waste sanitizer/receptacle; a pen sanitizer for use at retail checkouts; and a smart-phone recharger/sanitizer.

“That keyboard in front of you is far more than a keyboard,” explains Dr. Roberts. “It’s a germ factory that can cause a relentless series of illnesses and infections. The good news is that some simple precautions can neutralize its potential to sicken.”

For more information on VirWall, the KBS-1 keyboard sanitizer and to see a demo video, visit www.virwallsystems.com.

(Dr. Roberts is senior partner with The Marbury Law Group in Reston, VA; Dr. Donald Hetzel, PhD, is the former head of R&D for several multinational pharmaceutical companies.)

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By Yvette Martyn

Antibiotic resistance is on the rise

Antibiotics became resistant in a process very similar to Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest. Lots of bacteria populated inside a person, random mutations occured in the bacteria’s DNA and one day antibiotics were given and the random mutation lead to the bacteria being able to fight off the antibiotic.

Just like the giraffe with the long neck which reached the leafs enabling survival, this bacteria found a way to get around the process the antibiotic used to kill it.

Staphylococcus Aureus did it (hence the superbug MRSA, Methicillin Resistant staphylococcus Aureus). Methicillin is an antibiotic, one day the drug was given to a person with the infection which attacks skin and wounds and the bacteria fought it off.

So is MRSA incurable?
No, great big corporations exist in this world called drug companies and they find other antibiotics which can take the place of resistant drugs and fight off the resistant bacteria. In MRSA’s case we have good old Vancomycin. But they find them quite slowly hence the need to prevent antibiotic resistance.

How do we prevent antibiotic resistance?
If doctors give out too many antibiotics it increases the chance that those sneaky bacteria will find a way to stop the antibiotic killing them. For example some antibiotics kill bacteria by preventing the bug generating food in a specific pathway.

If a doctor gives lots of antibiotics out it’s increases the chance that one day a bug will exist which will find another way to generate food, the antibiotic won’t work and furthermore the “superbug” will multiply in that person and then be passed onto another person, etc, etc.

But the drug companies will find new antibiotics?
Wrong, drugs aren’t actually that easily found, hence why we continue to use Sir Alexander Fleming discovery, penicillin. Which was found all the way back in 1928.

But it’s just bacteria, right, not viruses like that swine flu?
Wrong, viruses can become resistant to antivirals too, this might mean if you’re young and healthy and catch swine flu, health care professionals could be unwilling to give you the antiviral medication.

Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

November is Prematurity Awareness Month. In honor of this, some parents who have had babies prematurely have offered to tell their stories to create awareness about his important cause.

Our fourth profile is of Gavin Paquette.

Gavin was born on December 22nd 2007 at 26 weeks 4 days, however the doctor said he was more the size of a baby born at 25 weeks and 3 days. They thought that possibly mom Jennifer was confused about the conception date however she wasn’t because she had IUI (Intrauterine insemination) to conceive.

Jennifer had HELLP syndrome (a life-threatening obstetric complication usually considered to be a variant of pre-eclampsia.) Gavin weighed a mere 640 grams when he was born.

During Gavin’s NICU stay he was intubated shortly after birth because the doctors said he was able to cry OR breathe, but not both at the same time. He was on the ventilator for 5 weeks when they were able (after a course of steroids) to wean him to CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure.) Gavin was on CPAP for 3-4 weeks, then they were able to wean him to high-flow nasal cannula oxygen. (He came home on oxygen and was on it until he was over a year old.)

Gavin was OG (oral-gastric) tube fed for several weeks after starting on TPN for a few days after he was born. They wouldn’t feed him for the first few days because he hadn’t passed his meconium plug. They had to keep giving him enemas daily to pass it. Gavin started being fed by NG (nasogastric) tube after a while.

About a week after he was born he ended up with pneumonia, and shortly thereafter he developed MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium responsible for difficult-to-treat infections) in one of his eyes. Parents were unable to touch his skin with bare hands until he reached 1000 grams, but he had MRSA at that time, so they couldn’t touch him until after that was cleared up. Because of his fragile state and being on the ventilator, they were unable to hold him until he was 5 weeks old, and that was only with gloves and gowns on due to the fact that he still had the MRSA.

They started trying to bottle feed Gavin at 34 weeks. Breastfeeding was given a try in the hospital after working on bottle feeding, but Gavin never took to it. Most of his NICU stay was spent watching him desat (several hundred times a day at first!), and then trying to get him to gain weight so his lungs would get better. He retained fluid, so they started him on diuretics which he continued for about 6 months.

Gavin spent a total of 103 days in the NICU before coming home. As far as effects from his prematurity, he has BPD (Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia-a chronic lung disorder that is most common among children who were born prematurely, with low birthweights, and who received prolonged mechanical ventilation.) A neurologist told Jennifer that all preemies have some degree of brain damage. She does not know yet if that’s true. Gavin seems to be mostly caught up at least to his adjusted age, and his physical health (except for his lungs, which are getting better all the time.)

Gavin did have reflux while in the NICU and when he came home, but there was no luck with treating it with Prevacid or Zantac. They decided to just not treat it since it wasn’t that bad. He has been diagnosed with failure to thrive (a condition in which a child loses or fails to gain weight and grows at a slower rate than expected) since he wouldn’t drink more than a few ounces at a time until just recently. Gavin is finally starting to catch up on weight though.

If Jennifer had one piece of advice for a new preemie mom it would be this: Join a support group and get as much information and help as you can!

I asked Jennifer to describe Gavin in one word and she said “FIGHTER”.

I agree! It is not easy for any baby born this early to pull through the NICU without a fight!

As a nurse in a psychiatric hospital, I am very alarmed by this article.  It seems that MRSA has become commonplace with the population I serve and my patients are not known for being compliant with therapy.  As a nurse, working with these patients, I frequently wonder if I will become infected despite the use of universal precautions.

This article is important to all nurses and future nurses.  We need to be informed of the potential risks we face and we need to understand the possible outcomes if we are to do our jobs and not become infected.

Please read the following article and then visit the website at the end to obtain more information.

SUNDAY, Nov. 1 (HealthDay News) — New research holds bad news for health officials worried about a potentially lethal infection called MRSA that haunts hospitals: A strain that infects the bloodstream is five times more deadly than other strains.

To make matters worse, the USA600 strain appears to be at least partially immune to an antibiotic that’s used to treat the condition, the researchers have found.

A full half of patients infected with the strain died within a month, according to a study scheduled to be presented at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, held Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 in Philadelphia. That’s nearly five times the death rate of other people infected with MRSA, and 10 to 30 percent of those who acquire

MRSA infections in the bloodstream die within a month, the study found.MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, causes infections in the skin and bloodstream. It can also infect surgical wounds and cause pneumonia. In most cases, it sickens people in the hospital, but cases are becoming more common outside the health-care community, according to information in a news release from the Henry Ford Health System.

Researchers think it’s possible that the USA600 strain is unique. But they don’t know if other factors — such as the age of patients — could be at play.

Those who developed the USA600 strain tended to be older than those who acquired other MRSA strains, averaging 64 compared with 52 years old, the study noted.

“While many MRSA strains are associated with poor outcomes, the USA600 strain has shown to be more lethal and cause high mortality rates,” Dr. Carol Moore, the study’s lead author and a research investigator at the Henry Ford Hospital’s division of infectious diseases, said in the news release.

“In light of the potential for the spread of this virulent and resistant strain and its associated mortality,” she said, “it is essential that more effort be directed to better understanding this strain to develop measures for managing it.

“MRSA is challenging to treat because strains can be immune to many medications. The USA600 strain appears to be more immune than other strains to the drug vancomycin, which often still has the power to vanquish MRSA.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about MRSA.

HealthDay

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The staphylococcus aureus bacteria is a normal strain of bacteria your pet normally harbors (as do people). It’s found on your dog’s or cat’s skin, mucous membranes, urogenital and gastrointestinal tracts.

When this normal bacteria undergoes a genetic mutation, it can become a pet’s worst nightmare. Instead of being a normal part of your pet’s healthy bacteria it can cause life threatening infection due to its resistance to even the strongest antibiotics, such as Methicillin. These infections are called Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or “MRSA infections,”and are resistant to most antibiotic treatments.

As a result, they can lead to serious illness and even death.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a serious public health problem that is getting progressively worse and actually exacts a greater human death toll than “modern plagues” like AIDS.

Unfortunately, MRSA infections are also on the rise in our companion animals.

Typically, staph bacteria are relatively harmless. If the bacteria enter your pet’s body through a cut, it may cause an infection (staph bacteria is a common cause of skin infections) but even these are typically mild and can be easily treated. But unlike typical staph bacteria, MRSA is much more dangerous because it has become resistant to the broad-spectrum antibiotics commonly used to treat it, such as methicillin, oxacillin, penicillin and amoxicillin.

Why MRSA Poses a Threat to Your Dog or Cat

Antibiotics are one of the top two drugs prescribed by traditional veterinarians (steroids are the other).

As a holistic veterinarian, I am convinced antibiotics are over prescribed to the point of abuse in many conventional veterinary offices. Over prescribing antibiotics can set your pet up for a future allergic reaction to the drug. But worse, frequent and often unnecessary use of these drugs is causing antibiotic resistance in a growing number of bacteria strains.

When antibiotics are no longer effective against serious bacterial infections, life-threatening consequences are the result. MRSA is an example of a serious and sometimes fatal staph infection that is antibiotic resistant.

Risk Factors and Symptoms

The symptoms of MRSA in humans and animals are similar and include:

• Skin and soft tissue lesions
• Necrotizing fasciitis (a flesh-eating disease that can be life-threatening)
• Necrotizing pneumonia (pneumonia that causes death of lung tissue)
• Sepsis (a septic infection of the entire body)

The most common locations for these antibiotic-resistant infections are the skin, ears, and open wounds, especially post-surgical wound sites. An MRSA skin infection typically starts out as small, red, pimple-like bumps or boils. These may progress into deep, painful abscesses, and his skin may be swollen, pus-filled, painful, and red.

If your pet has experienced any of the following situations, it is at higher risk for a MRSA infection:

• Antibiotic therapy
• Surgery
• Hospitalization
• Trauma
• Another infection
• Skin lesions
• Contact with other animals or people who have the infection (research indicates the MRSA bacterial strain can be transmitted back and forth between pets and their humans)

If your pet has MRSA as opposed to a more common infection, it may not be immediately obvious. An MRSA skin infection looks like any other — until it refuses to heal. Another clue is an infection that isn’t responding to a broad spectrum antibiotic.

Because MRSA is so difficult to treat, it can easily progress from a superficial skin infection to a life-threatening infection in your pet’s bones, joints, bloodstream, heart valves, lungs, or surgical wounds.

An MRSA infection in the bloodstream is fatal about 50 percent of the time, and if the infection is found in the lungs, there is a 33 percent chance it will cause death.

MRSA infections of the skin are less likely to be fatal, but can result in chronic, unresolved lesions and sores. And, needless to say, this can pose a significant threat to you and the rest of your family, as MRSA is easily spread through contact.

Obviously, the best treatment for this serious threat is to prevent infection in the first place.

Proceed with Caution When Treating Your Pet for Infection or Other Illness

Alternatives to antibiotics should be used whenever possible. Many conditions for which antibiotics are often indiscriminately prescribed respond very well to a combination of herbs, homeopathic remedies, immune system stimulants and nutritional supplements.

It’s important to realize that antibiotics are not without side effects, some of them long-term. They can cause problems ranging from diarrhea, to tooth discoloration, to suppression of your pet’s bone marrow — even permanent deafness. And last, but likely the most problematic of all, there’s the problem with creating antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria that normally only pose a minor danger.

Therefore, choosing antibiotic therapy should be a serious, measured decision. It should never be viewed as the best, quickest, or “safest” way to help your pet heal from every illness or infection.

If your dog or cat isn’t facing a life-threatening health situation, talk with your veterinarian about options other than prescription medication. Explain your desire to approach treatment cautiously, interfering minimally in your pet’s natural ability to heal itself.

What to Do if Your Pet Really Does Need an Antibiotic

If your veterinarian determines an antibiotic is truly necessary to heal your dog or cat, I strongly recommend you review and follow these guidelines to minimize the dangers to your pet:

1. Choose the correct antibiotic for the specific infection should be done to determine the specific type of bacteria causing the infection, so that the appropriate antibiotic can be prescribed.
2. Administer the proper dose (amount) to effectively resolve the infection. Underdosing your pet may seem safer but can actually foster antibiotic resistance.
3. Define the proper intervals for dosing (once … twice … or four times a day?) and follow your vet’s advice.
4. Define the right length of time to keep your pet on the drug (long enough to be effective, but no longer) … stopping antibiotics when you think the infection is gone vs. giving the whole course is yet another way bacterial resistance is fostered! Additionally, if you stop therapy too early and your pet’s infection isn’t completely healed, you may have to start the antibiotic treatment all over again.
5. If the culture shows that a bacterial infection is not present, don’t use antibiotics. Remember, antibiotics DO NOT WORK on viral or fungal infections!

How to Fight the Side Effects of Antibiotic Treatment

It’s important to realize that antibiotics are “anti-life,” and indiscriminately kills off ALL bacteria — both good and bad. If your dog or cat has been treated with antibiotics, the healthy bacteria in her digestive tract have also been destroyed, which can set the stage for additional health problems, such as loss of vitality, poor food absorption, and dysbiosis (leaky gut syndrome).

Therefore, it’s important to re-seed your pet’s system with friendly micro-organisms during and after antibiotic therapy, and re-establish a healthy balance of gut bacteria. This will help to keep your dog’s or cat’s digestive tract working optimally and keep her immune system strong.

The probiotic I give my own animals and the one I recommend for all my pet patients is Complete Probiotics for Pets.

In my professional opinion, this is the highest quality pet probiotic available anywhere, and will help to regenerate and maintain your dog’s or cat’s digestive health — especially during and after medical intervention and prescription drug therapy.

By: Dr. Becker

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Posted:  Just One More Pet

Source: Clean, Safe Care

Follow this link for fulltext

Date of publication: 9^th September 2009

Publication type: Best practice

In a nutshell: A Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is an essential activity to undertake following the diagnosis of a health care associated infection.   Clean, Safe Care has developed a toolkit for implementing a clearly defined process for undertaking a RCA, in order to identify areas that require improvement and minimise the chance of recurrence.   The toolkit includes data gathering tools, training materials, case studies and checklists.

AFP
September 15, 2009

The so-called superbug MRSA, a multiresistant strain of staphylococcus usually found in hospitals, has been discovered for the first time on US beaches, a study said.

The antibiotic-resistant strain, which is increasingly found in prisons, gym locker rooms and homes, can cause skin conditions and organ ailments and serious and sometimes fatal cases of pneumonia.

“This is the first report of MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) from marine water and inertial beach sand,” said Marilyn Roberts, a microbiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle and co-author of the study, during a press briefing Saturday.

The study was presented on the first day of the 49th annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agency and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), which is being held in San Francisco this weekend.

The study describes the discovery of the MRSA strain on five out of 10 public beaches along the coasts of Washington and California, where researchers collected sand and water samples between February and September 2008.

Read entire article

URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/antibiotic-resistant-superbug-found-on-u-s-beaches/

Source:  Nursing Times.net
Follow this link for fulltext
Date of publication: 4th August 2009
Publication type: Case Study
In a nutshell: The drugs specialist nursing team at Bristol Royal Infirmary aim to improve services for patients misusing drugs. In 2007 their role was extended to tackle infection control issues relating to patients who misused substances, after a hospital audit revealed a significant number of MRSA infections were entering the hospital via injecting drug users. The team of nurses also provide health promotion covering MRSA, hand hygiene, and avoiding infections while the patients are hospitalised. Between January and April 2007, 10 cases of MRSA bacteraemia in injecting drug users were recorded. Following the introduction of the infection control role, this went down to nine cases for January-December 2008. So far just one case of MRSA bacteraemia in an injecting drug user has been recorded in 2009.
Length of publication: Web page

MRSA or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterial infection that is resistant to drugs. Organisms that are resistant to drugs are also known as superbugs. 

“Resistant to drugs” means it is very difficult to eradicate the organism. This resistance to drugs results from patients and doctors abusing antibiotics. Patient abuse comes from not taking antibiotics as prescribed by a doctor or obtaining and using prescriptions from others that have abused antibiotics. If you have left over doctor prescribed antibiotics, it likely means you have abused them. This is because if you had taken them as prescribed, you would not have any left over. Doctor abuse comes from scumming to the pressure(s) from patients to give a prescription for pills to solve the patients’ problems. Doctors also face pressures and incentives from insurance companies to keep costs down, and it is cheaper for the insurance company to treat your symptoms versus the root cause of the symptoms.

MRSA is spread through contact with another person or touching an object. It enters your body through damaged skin, which you may or not realize is at risk. Cuts and abrasions are not the only type of damaged skin. Dry skin is also damaged skin.

If you have an infection that is not getting better, go to the doctor immediately! MRSA can be deadly if it enters your bloodstream. I highly recommend seeing an infectious disease specialist experienced with MRSA treatment.

To diagnose MRSA, the doctor will culture the infected area. The culture will take several days. The results will include a listing of drugs that may or may not work (for treatment). MRSA mutates, so do not be surprised if the culture has to be redone and your treatment plan changed. This can occur more than once. If your doctor does not recommend it, I would also use Hibiclens (a topical cleanser) on the affected area until you are cured.

The best preventative measures are washing your hands (properly), keeping damaged skin covered, and staying away from other’s damaged skin. Do not share personal items including gym equipment (unless sanitized beforehand). Use bleach and your dryer to help kill bacteria on laundry items. I also recommend not sitting directly on a toilet seat - use a liner or construct a liner from toilet paper.

Here are some useful MRSA links -

http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/understanding-mrsa-methicillin-resistant-staphylococcus-aureus

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mrsa/DS00735

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methicillin-resistant_Staphylococcus_aureus

Title: MRSA reduction: myths and facts.

Source: Nursing Management USA 40(5) pp.24-9.

Publication type: Journal Article

In a Nutshell: Considers improvement in staff compliance with evidence based guidelines and mythbusting about MRSA transmission to ensure compliance. Also indentifies trends in the incidence of hospital-acquired MRSA infection and colonisation.

Length of publication: 5p.

Some Important Notes: Ask your health librarian to get hold of this for you.

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Use only as directed on the label.  Do not exceed recommended dosage.

These statements have not been evaluated by the F.D.A.  This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease.

As many of you probably know, the risk of being bitten by a dog is greatest in the summer.  The risk is higher for children (particularly boys).  And about 27% of those bites come from family pets.

Researchers speculate that children may spend more time outdoors playing with dogs in warmer months. Or it may be that dogs are generally more irritable in hot weather.  (In American cities the murder rate also elevates in the summer, for pretty much the same reasons.  People are outdoors more, gathering together more, and the heat and humidity make many of us grouchy.)

So were were perturbed to see that US researchers are warning of the risk of staph infection from pet bites and scratches.

The staph infection in question is known as MRSA.  Staph infections, including MRSA, occur most frequently among persons in hospitals and healthcare facilities (such as nursing homes and dialysis centers) who have weakened immune systems.

MRSA stands for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

MRSA is a type of bacteria that is resistant to certain antibiotics. These antibiotics include methicillin and other more common antibiotics such as oxacillin, penicillin and amoxicillin.

MRSA infections that occur in otherwise healthy people who have not been recently hospitalized or had a medical procedure are known as community-associated (CA)-MRSA infections. These infections are usually skin infections, such as abscesses, boils, and other pus-filled lesions.  If untreated, blood poisoning (sepsis) can also result.

MRSA – Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus – is not a common strain of the bacteria in domestic animals, but it is being seen more and more.

Writing in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, a team led by Dr. Richard Oehler, of the University of South Florida, said “As Community-Acquired strains of MRSA increase in prevalence, a growing body of clinical evidence has documented MRSA colonisation in domestic animals, often implying direct infection from their human owners.”

So MRSA outside the hospital setting can be passed back and forth between humans and pets.

Before you freak out, here are some handy facts:

Boys aged five to nine are most at risk of dog bites. Because of their height, children are usually bitten on the face, neck or head.

Cat bites are more common in women and the elderly. They usually cause deeper puncture wounds than dogs, and carry a higher risk of infection and soft-tissue abscesses.

Severe infections occur in about 20% of bite cases, and are caused by bacteria in the animal’s mouth, plus other infectious agents from the person’s skin.

Any MRSA infection acquired from pets is treated with medication, in the same way as other MRSA infections.

According to Dr. Oehler, “Clinicians must continue to promote loving pet ownership, take an adequate pet history, and be aware that associated diseases are preventable via recognition, education and simple precautions.”

Finally, infection from pet bites and scratches is very common, particularly in children.  So if your child, or a child you know, does get bitten or scratched this summer, watch the wound carefully.  If signs of infection appear, then it’s probably a good idea to seek medical treatment.

Here’s the ABC News story and here’s one from the New York Daily News.

Source: Clean, Safe Care
For fulltext link here 
Year of publication: 2009
Publication type: Case study
In a nutshell:  The project aims to improve PCT board assurance in infection prevention and control (IPC) and to keep the trust board informed with an ‘at-a-glance’ view of the present position with regards to MRSA, Clostridium Difficile and other infections. The dashboard captures in one place all relevant assurance data from providers (including internal, ie PCT providers) about their performance regarding infection control.  The dashboard is also intended to provide information as an ‘early warning’ indicator to identify future trouble spots.
Length of publication: Series of 4 PDFs

Source: Oxoid
Follow this link for fulltext
Date of publication: 2009
Publication type: News item

In a nutshell: The infection control team at the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded the 2008/2009 Oxoid Infection Control Team of the Year Awards.  Significant cuts in MRSA and Clostridium Difficile rates impressed the judges as well as innovations including the provision of training in aseptic technique combined with blood culture packs designed to reduce contaminated cultures.

Length of publication: Web page
Acknowledgement: Nursing Times

Title: Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) prevention through facility-wide culture change.

Source: Critical Care Nursing Quarterly, 32(2) p.144-148)

Date of publication: 2009

Publication type: Journal Article

In a nutshell: Considers the implemention of a facility-wide program aimed at changing and standardizing the culture within the hospital with regard to the prevention of MRSA.

Length of publication: 4p.

Some important notes:

Acknowledgement:

I am quoting a blog that I read earlier in that particular title, but I think it bears examination that we can call autism an epidemic when, by definition, an epidemic is widespread by similiar mechanisms.  In other words, a virus spreads flu, like the Flu of 1918.  A bacteria spreads strep, MRSA.  So now an epidemic is caused by genetics?  Strange argument that the medical field is using to decry the development of autism as merely a genetic fluke of the 21st century.

Jim Carey has published an article in the Huffington Post about autism, opening himself up to much criticism, in a very brave manner.  The thing that Carey seems to get no credit for is his support of the idea of vaccines; he just is against the manner in which they are propagated and dispersed.

We have never argued that people shouldn’t be immunized for the most serious threats including measles and polio, but surely there’s a limit as to how many viruses and toxins can be introduced into the body of a small child. Veterinarians found out years ago that in many cases they were over-immunizing our pets, a syndrome they call Vaccinosis. It overwhelmed the immune system of the animals, causing myriad physical and neurological disorders. Sound familiar? If you can over-immunize a dog, is it so far out to assume that you can over-immunize a child? These forward thinking vets also decided to remove thimerosal from animal vaccines in 1992, and yet this substance, which is 49% mercury, is still in human vaccines. Don’t our children deserve as much consideration as our pets?

Why don’t the kids get the same consideration as the dogs?  Everyone wants to pull apart the big argument of vaccines and autism, as though if they find enough holes, this assumption won’t be true.  But, why trust vaccine makers when the medical field has the Tuskegee Project in its history, a history of using arsenic, not understanding lead poisoning, blood letting?

To say that an institution is infallible is to lean stupidly on faith, and even Jesus asked for mercy.

Why does everyone want to believe so badly?  We have nothing that touts belief for anything in this country like we have systems set up to support the medical field.  Even religion allowed in the governmental offices, but apparently a school of medicince creates the law, the governing bodies, and all the societal rules, even those for school.  Is there such a small majority questioning these issues?

The government can drop an atom bomb on a country and then deny that it caused cancer until we see pictures of burning children.  This same government can act as though 9/11 didn’t exist, and still the hordes believe everything is okay until Bush is done reading a story?  The government has openly supported slavery until there was a national war.  The government allows waterboarding, and still there are people who believe in it?  The government starts a war in Iraq based on WMD, and still there is no question.   Why not question vaccines?  why assume Jim Carey and Jenny McCarthy are not telling the truth?

The medical field is not set up to admit mistakes.  The medical field gave thalidomide to women during pregnancy.  The medical field, backed by the government of the US, gave women hormone replacement therapy until they died from cancer, and not just one or two before the studies came out against it.  The medical field got behind Vioxx until people died of heart attacks.  The medical field put out medications that cause cancer, that cause heart attacks, that can cause death in others, and yet we have to still fight people who say vaccines are completely safe?

It’s the completely that bothers me.  No one wants a gray area here, and that worries me.  There is no guarantee of anything in this world, so why would there be a guarantee about vaccines?  Anyone who issues a guarnatee is lying.  Guess who is lying…

Source: University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

For fulltext link here

Year of publication: 2009

Publication type: Case Study

In a nutshell: A pilot hand hygiene campaign funded by the Department of Health was launched at University College Hospital on Tuesday 24 February.   The campaign aims to to engage, excite and motivate people to improve hand hygiene and to change their attitudes and behaviour.  The campaign uses new technology and communication strategies such as viral messaging, holograms, laser displays and a specially commissioned song for YouTube.

Length of publication: 1 web page

Source: Department of Health

For fulltext link here

Year of publication: 2008

Publication type: Best Practice

In a nutshell: A compendium designed to identify areas of good practice arising from the national deep clean initiative and become a basis for sharing learning across organisations.

Length of publication: 29 page report

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Acknowledgement: New Documents Bulletin

Source: NHS Education South Central

For fulltext link here

Year of publication: 2009

Publication type: Case Study

In a nutshell: South Central is piloting an innovative way of tackling bacteraemia using a standardised training programme for cannulation and maintenance of peripheral lines.  The project is funded by NHS Education South Central.  The trusts involved in the project have emplyed various methods to disseminate training including employing a designated project nurse to deliver IV training, developing a training video that can be viewed on mobile phones and creating an e-learning site to share training resources.  The results of the project will be reported in Summer 2009.

Length of publication: 1 web page

Source: Infections in Medicine 26(2) 49-57.

Year of publication: 2009

Publication type: Journal Article

In a nutshell:  Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) must be recognized now as one of the most common causes of infections acquired in the community. In addition, serious invasive and often fatal episodes of necrotizing pneumonia, necrotizing fasciitis, endocarditis, and sepsis are being reported with increased frequency. Therefore, rapid diagnostic tests and new therapeutic agents are urgently needed for the early detection and management of these infections. Recognition of at-risk persons and implementation of infection control strategies are strongly emphasized and encouraged by the most important regulatory institutions. The approach to community-acquired MRSA infections has become a challenge to physicians.

Some important notes: Ask your local health librarian to get hold of this for you (not available electronically as part of national core content).