Are you afraid of the new superbug?

Question

The new supervirus can be spread through casual contact such as shaking hands or touching the same railing.
Does that scare you?
What are you doing differently?

Answer 1

I've been interacting with people with the "superbug" (MRSA, a type of bacteria) 4-5 times a week for at least three years - long before the current scare made headlins. I even shake the hands of each and every single person I meet.

So no, I'm not scared of it. Perhaps the key is that I wash my hands before and after every patient.

Granted, community-acquired MRSA can colonize people's skin (i.e. live on the skin without causing infection) and then, if it gets into the deeper layers of the skin, it can cause painful skin infections. If it gets deeper or if you're weakened for some reason, it can even cause lethal infections.

HOWEVER, the other bacteria that live on our skin and in our throats (and spread as colonizers from person to person) can do the same thing! Even in the age of antibiotics, we still lose thousands of people every year to bacterial infections such as pneumonia and blood stream infections. MRSA is just another bug that can kill people. In my mind, it's no different from the others.

Community acquired MRSA is something that should worry doctors, medical researchers, public health authorities, and the folks who allocate money for medical research as it requires a specific action from each of them (doctors need to wash hands more often and prescribe different antibiotics, medical researchers need to study how to kill MRSA so we have new weapons available in case MRSA learns how to be resistant to our remaining antibiotics, etc.)

For us everyday folks, the key is practicing the sort of hand washing and basic hygiene we all learned in elementary school, seeing the doctor if we have concerning symptoms, and above all, carrying on with enjoying our lives.

Answer 2

Okay, first of all, get your facts straight. The new "superbug' is a form of staphylococcus, a bacteria, not a virus. Most bacteria and viruses can be killed by common soap and water. This means practicing common hygiene principals such as hand washing every time you use the bathroom, sneeze or cough into your hands.
MRSA, has been around for years. The 'superbug' version of it is only dangerous to children and to people who have compromised immune systems, like those with diabetes, and taking immunosuppressant drugs, or those with HIV. Children are at risk because an 'adult' antiobiotic, called levafloxacin, is needed to treat the infection. Less than 1% off all staph infections are this drug resistant variety of MRSA.
SO if you are a parent of a child, you need to make sure that if your child participates in sports, that all uniforms, towels and the like are laundered regularly. You need to make sure that equipment that is shared, such as shoulder pads, helmets, etc. are periodically cleaned with a hospital grade cleaning agent, like chlorhexadine. Finally, teach your kids to wash with soap and water after sports.
This will cut down the rate of common staph transmissions.
Finally, don't overuse antibiotics. If you have a viral infection, antibiotics will not work on it, nor will they reduce the duration of the illness. Only use antibiotics for documented bacterial infections, and make sure you take the prescription until it's ALL GONE, not until you feel better. This will decrease the incidence of resistant critters cropping up.

Answer 3

What are talking about MRSA? that is not new it has been around since the 90's but has gotten worse b/c of the schools and parents not teaching hand washing is a rule not an exception and not to share alot of items!

Answer 4

Everyone should be.We have been ingesting antibiotics in our food without our knowledge.It's spayed on our vegetables,fed to chicken.pigs & cattle.Humans are getting immune to meds and when we need them,there not going to work.