What is the name of the infection you get in an unclean hospital?

Answer 1

MRSA = methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

What is MRSA?

MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It is a type of bacterium commonly found on the skin and/or in the noses of healthy people. Although it is usually harmless at these sites, it may occasionally get into the body (eg through breaks in the skin such as abrasions, cuts, wounds, surgical incisions or indwelling catheters) and cause infections. These infections may be mild (eg pimples or boils) or serious (eg infection of the bloodstream, bones or joints).

The treatment of infections due to Staphylococcus aureus was revolutionised in the 1940s by the introduction of the antibiotic penicillin.

Unfortunately, most strains of Staphylococcus aureus are now resistant to penicillin. This is because Staphylococcus aureus has 'learnt' to make a substance called ß-lactamase (pronounced beta-lactamase), that degrades penicillin, destroying its antibacterial activity.

Some related antibiotics, such as methicillin and flucloxacillin, are not affected by ß-lactamase and can still be used to treat many infections due to ß-lactamase-producing strains of Staphylococcus aureus. Unfortunately, however, certain strains of Staphylococcus aureus, known as MRSA, have now also become resistant to treatment with methicillin and flucloxacillin.

Although other types of antibiotics can still be used to treat infections caused by MRSA, these alternative drugs are usually not available in tablet form and must be administered through a drip inserted into a vein.

Who gets infection with MRSA?

MRSA infections most often occur in patients in hospitals and are rarely seen among the general public. As with ordinary strains of Staphylococcus aureus, some patients harbour MRSA on their skin or nose without harm (such patients are said to be 'colonised'), whereas other patients may develop infections.

Some patients are at increased risk of developing infection. They include those with breaks in their skin due to wounds (including those caused by surgery), indwelling catheters or burns, and those with certain types of deficiency in their immune system, such as low numbers of white cells in their blood.

When MRSA spread from an initial site of colonisation to a site where they cause infection in the same patient (eg spread from the colonised nose to a wound), the resulting infection is described as 'endogenous'.

In addition to causing endogenous infections, MRSA can spread between patients, usually by direct or indirect physical contact. For example, hospital staff attending to a colonised or infected patient may become contaminated or colonised with MRSA themselves (perhaps only briefly). They may then spread the bacteria to other patients with whom they subsequently have contact. These patients may in turn become colonised and/or infected. The spread of MRSA (or for that matter other bacteria) between patients is called cross-infection.

Some strains of MRSA that are particularly successful at spreading between patients may also spread between hospitals, presumably when colonised patients or staff move from one hospital to another. These strains are known as epidemic MRSA (or EMRSA for short).

Can the spread of MRSA be controlled?

There are several steps that may be undertaken to minimise the spread of MRSA between patients.


Hospital staff should wash their hands scrupulously, preferably using antibacterial soap and disposable towels.


Patients colonised or infected with MRSA may be kept away from other patients by being placed in separate rooms, either alone or with other patients who also have MRSA. Access to such rooms should be restricted to essential personnel.


Hospital staff should wear gloves and disposable gowns prior to having physical contact with MRSA patients. Before leaving the room, they should discard these safely, and wash their hands.


Visitors and carers likely to have a lot of physical contact with patients should also wear disposable gloves and gowns. All visitors should wash their hands before leaving the room.


MRSA can survive on inanimate objects or surfaces such as linen, sinks, floors and even mops used for cleaning. For this reason, areas where MRSA patients are nursed should be thoroughly cleaned using disinfectants.


How is infection or colonisation with MRSA diagnosed?

To diagnose MRSA infection, 'specimens' are taken from the patient, such as a swab of an infected wound or a sample of blood or urine. These are sent to a microbiology laboratory, where bacteria present in the specimen are cultured and identified. This process may take several days. Colonisation with MRSA is detected similarly, using swabs of a person's skin or from the inside of the nose.

How is MRSA treated?


Patients colonised with MRSA

Patients or other individuals simply colonised with MRSA may have a special antibiotic called mupirocin applied onto their skin (Bactroban) or the inside of their nose (Bactroban nasal). This helps to eliminate the MRSA and reduces the risk of the bacteria spreading either to other sites on the patient's body, where they might cause infection, or to other patients. Some strains of MRSA are, however, resistant to mupirocin.

Individuals colonised with MRSA may also wash their skin and hair with suitable disinfectants, such as chlorhexidine.


Patients infected with MRSA

Patients with infections due to Staphylococcus aureus often need antibiotics. Infections due to normal strains of Staphylococcus aureus are often treated with flucloxacillin (eg Floxapen), but this is ineffective against MRSA. To make matters worse, MRSA are often also resistant to other types of antibiotics such as erythromycin (eg Erythroped) and ciprofloxacin (eg Ciproxin).

Although MRSA are resistant to many drugs, most remain susceptible to the antibiotics vancomycin and teicoplanin (Targocid). Infections due to MRSA are therefore often treated with one or other of these drugs. Both must be administered by infusion or injection, and for this reason, they are used for treatment only in hospitalised patients. In addition, injection of vancomycin into muscle is painful and thus not used, while rapid administration into a vein may produce an allergic-type reaction (the so-called 'red man' syndrome). To overcome these problems, vancomycin must be given by slow infusion into a vein. In contrast, teicoplanin may be safely administered by injection into muscle or rapid infusion into a vein.


A very few MRSA resistant to vancomycin and/or teicoplanin have been found and there is concern that they may become more common in the future. Fortunately, new antibiotics that are active against MRSA are under investigation and should hopefully become available for clinical use in the near future.

Recently, one such new drug called linezolid (Zyvox) has been introduced in the UK. This drug may be given either by intravenous infusion (in severely ill patients) or in tablet form. Clinical trials have so far shown it is useful (either alone or in combination with other antibiotics) for the treatment of pneumonia and skin and soft tissue infections.

Answer 2

An unclean hospital is almost nonexistent. Too many regulatory boards. But, even the cleanest hospital is a source of germs that cause infections. Because people who have contacted germ causing infections come there to be treated.

Staph,ect grow everywhere and are on you constantly. When you are sick your immune system is low, so you are more at risk to catch an infection, by allowing these germs to come into your body or into your system.

Remember when you are in a hospital, there are many diseases being treated. So, you are around diseases. Nosocomal infections are hospital acquired infections.

Be sure to always wash your hands when you are around any source of infections. EVEN the waiting room at a doctors office!

Answer 3

Any hospital-acquired in fection is called 'nosocomial'. It is generally due to Pseudomonas, (coagulase positive) Staphylococcus, E. coli, etc. Unfortunatley, all these organisms are highly resistant to the conventional antibiotics and are becoming a problem in a big way, causing conditions like acute infective endocarditis. Any medical intervention that produces a complication is known as 'iatrogenic'.

Answer 4

An infection caught in a hospital is called a nosocomial infection.

It can be staph, or strep, or MRSA, or C. dificile, or any number of other organisms.

Answer 5

Nosocomial means the infections u get from health care instituitions there are quite a few:

Staph,
Pseudomonas
Vancomycin resisant enterococcus
Clostridium Deficile.

Your immune system has to be down though.
Doctora and Nurses who work there every day don't get sick (except from flu) if their immune system works well.

Answer 6

Staph infection.

Answer 7

Nosocomial infection

Answer 8

All hospital resting microorganisms (antibiotic resisting) mite cause difficult treated infections the most complex are (pseudomonas spp) &the most famous are (staph. spp&strept. spp), such infections termed as hospital infections.

Answer 9

Staphylococcus (staff) infection

Answer 10

well, any number of infections, but you are most likely talking about a strain of staph bacteria

Answer 11

Do you mean sepsis? Not necessarily from a dirty hospital but if a bedridden person gets bed sores and they're not cleaned or moved regularly it can actually cause death. My best friend's mom died from it.