MRSA-Are the Family and I Doomed?

Question

So, I got stung by a wasp about two weeks ago while at Disney. It started getting better but one morning I woke up and it had swelled to the size of a tennis ball and was extremely painful. I went straight the doctor's because I thought I was having a weird allergic reaction. Anyway, they cut it open and drained it and removed a stinger that was still in there. We all thought the left-in stinger caused the infection but she did a swab of the gunk they drained and sent me home with two stitches in my back, Vicoden, Levaquin, and doxycycline. She called a few days ago and wants me to go in tomorrow morning. Apparently the swab came back as MRSA. She said there has been an outbreak of it in this area and that it's a bad bacteria. :-/ She said that the wasp sting breaking my skin allowed the bacteria to enter my body. At this point, I'm not in danger am I? How likely is it my kids (a young baby of 5 months and a 5 year old) could catch it? More details to come, please keep reading.

I've been on antibiotics since about three or four days after the wasp sting, so about ten days or so now. She called in MORE doxycycline and MORE Levaquin and told me I need to take both another ten days. Is that a little overkill or is it really necessary? I took naps with the baby while I had this thing on my back. I had my hubby change dressings on it and clean it with alcohol. I washed my laundry with everyone else's. I didn't know at the time it was or could even possibly be a contagious bacteria, I just thought it was caused by the stinger. :-(

How likely is it they'll suffer with this too? I think my heart will break if either of my children have to feel this sort of pain.

Answer 1

First of all, no you and your family are not doomed. MRSA is increasingly common in the community setting, and I do wonder if you physician is overreacting. Are you allergic to Septra? I ask because Septra is the antibiotic of choice for treating community acquired MRSA as long as the strain is not resistant. One of the biggest misconceptions about MRSA is that it carries horrible drug resistance. In reality, penicillin and its derivatives are about the only things that many strains of MRSA (especially community acquired ones) are resistant to. Just keep taking your medicine and be sure everyone is washing their hands properly.

Answer 2

Staphylococcus aureus has been annoying people for a long time. What you had, though caused by the retained stinger part, was basically a boil. Hospital-acquired staph infections can be truly nasty and difficult to treat. Community-acquired MRSA tends to be a pain but not much more. The strange thing is that its sensitivity to antibiotics is so different in areas fairly close together. In my area, for instance, it mostly does quite well when treated with good old cheap trimethoprim-sulfamethoxasole, and an hour away they often have to use much more expensive regimens with a huge side-effect profile, like levofloxacin and clindamycin. If it turns out to be a family problem you may wind up stuffing mupirocin up your nose, but your doctor probably won't even mention it until it appears there's a need.

Answer 3

Your doctor answered your own question. You only contracted the infection because you had a break in the skin. Approximately one in three adults carry MRSA in the west, and to be honest, community acquired infections are not any problem, it is the hospital ones because people in hopsital are already sick. Plus surgery can introduce the bacteria into the deep tissue.

Answer 4

You have a methicillin resistant bacteria and will probably require a different antibiotic than the ones that you are now taking.
If the area is still draining, dispose of the dressings where nobody is in contact with them, and thoroughly wash your hands after touching. Don't allow your children to have close contact with the wound area.

Answer 5

Do you have diabetes? people with diabetes can be very prone to infections of any sort...if your immune system is good, then you can fight it off better...I have heard it said that many healthcare workers have it on their skin without problems...not real likely that the others will get it if they are not worn out or immune system down or if they have no open wounds...cleanliness is the best policy (ordinary soap and water) to help prevent..probably best to take whatever antibiotics the doctor recommends to prevent it getting worse (so not have to do IV vancomycin in the hospital)...

here are some links
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/ar_mrsa.html
http://www.amm.co.uk/files/factsabout/fa_mrsa.htm
http://www.link.med.ed.ac.uk/RIDU/Mrsa.htm
http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/biol_hazards/methicillin.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2572841.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methicillin_Resistant_Staphylococcus_Aureus
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/diseases/facts/mrsa.htm

Answer 6

I feel for you, but you need to phone your doctor and ask these questions. You'll get the answers you need from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Please let us know how you get on. I'm thinking of you.