How does Staph enter your bloodstream? Please doctors or medical professionals answer me I'M SCARED?

Question

I have a family and Staph infection has been spread from my husband to myself and son. Doctor just gave us an antibiotic ointment for the boils, but heres the thing: My husband had MRSA since 2005 and was treated but still has reoccurences of boils sometimes. He gave it to me and now I have these small boils on me, now my son. I had them a long time ago (2005) too but i didnt know what they were until now. Now my son has them. I am scared to death of getting the infecction inside our bloodstream to the rest of our body.

So how does the Staph enter the bloodstream?

Are there any ways besides a cut or wound that it will enter the bloodstream?

Since my husband and I have had it since 2005, can the infection go through the skin into our bodies since we have had it for so long?

My son is only 9 months old, will it make him real sick?

Answer 1

People with healthy immune systems generally don't get staph infections in the blood stream unless they get a deep would, or their immune system becomes weakened by something. It spreads in the blood when it is able to build up in a location that does not seal off from the normal blood flow.

The skin contains and produces keratin which is impervious to bacteria. Keratin and other proteins form a hardened seal around boils, which keeps the infection near the surface and isolated from deeper tissues. This seal protects you as long as you don't squeeze the boils or do anything to force the bacteria deeper into you skin. Tissues in organs, fat, and muscles don't contain keratin, so they do not have the same level of protection as the skin.

The fact that you have had MRSA on your skin for years can actually a good thing - it means that your body is used to producing antibodies to MRSA. The boils don't pose a risk unless they become unusually deep or last more than 2 weeks. You just need to monitor boils to keep track of the time, size, and appearance each of you have one, and visit the doctor if anything seems worse than ordinary. Also avoid irritating you skin with harsh soaps, tight clothes, or anything else that causes your skin to dry out or become itchy.

Answer 2

Staph Infection In The Bloodstream

Answer 3

YOU ARE not going to DIE! I am not a medical professional BUT how does over 15 years of experience with these drugs sound, look in the mirror, look at your eye's, how big, or how small are they, see how much they react to light, shine a flashlight in them and see if your pupils react right away or are locked frozen, take your pulse, if it is not over 110 beats a minute DO NOT panic! Is there a way to take your blood pressure? If your eye's are not reacting to a flashlight you are under strong influence of a near overdose situation. If you feel you are in danger go to the ER, DO NOT call 911!!!! UNLESS you want to say the truth however Unless you are so out of it you cannot walk, look at your finger nail beds, are they blue??? **** your respirations, they should be 16 to 24, if your not breathing that is when your going to die. Drink a lot of water, mix a lot of sugar with water and chug it and sit and calm down. You wrote this over an hour ago, if your still feeling the same, get some medical attention, and tell them at the ER you took an antibiotic with your pain pills or suboxone, or their going to think your a danger to yourself! Cipro interacts with this stuff, so say you took one of them, for anything, but don't act like your a nut on drugs! If your situation does not change in 2 hours and it stays the same, go! If your still freaking out, and your situation got worse, for god sakes call 911, or go to the ER! I am not even going to begin to explain what you did. The xanex, hell I would NOT take it, it can have fatal results! PERIOD!

Answer 4

The staph can enter your body by any means. A cut, scratch, etc. Start using some kind of antibacterial wash like dial. Make sure you are cleaning your house VERY WELL! Bleach! Bleach! Bleach! You can also use iodine to swab your boils with! I have even heard alchol, but it will sting like the dickens! Dont pick them! Wash your hands with warm water & soap!!!!!!! You need to keep the boils covered with some kind of dressing whether that be a bandaid, etc. especially if they are draining! Make sure you wash your clothes in the hottest setting to kill these bad boys. Think about every route that this MRSA can be transmitted! Toilets, doorknobs, etc. Bleach water & a cloth. Because you guys will have to get rid of the MRSA first, then maintain the MRSA free zone! Good luck to you!

Answer 5

staph spreads to the blood stream by direct infiltration of UNCONTROLLED infections. as the infections get deeper and bigger on the skin, there is a greater chance of the bacteria entering the blood stream.

i don't mean to scare you, but, simply because of his age, your son is at risk of getting sepsis (blood stream infection) IF he is NOT treated with a sufficient antibiotic. if he has MRSA, he should be treated with something like vancomycin. did your pediatrician do a culture of his boils? if so, then the doctor should know whether or not this is an MRSA infection and should know the appropriate antibiotic. if your son gets a high fever, is fussier than normal, becomes sluggish or unarousable, take him to the emergency room. those are signs of a blood stream infection.

as far as you and your husband are concerned, you shouldn't be at much of a risk for sepsis since you have been stable for two years.

Answer 6

Spread of S. aureus (including MRSA) is through human-to-human contact, although recently some vets have discovered that the infection can be spread through pets, with environmental contamination thought to play a relatively unimportant part. Emphasis on basic hand washing techniques are therefore effective in preventing the transmission of S. aureus. The use of disposable aprons and gloves by staff reduces skin-to-skin contact and therefore further reduces the risk of transmission. Please refer to the article on infection control for further details.

Alcohol has proven to be an effective topical sanitizer against MRSA. Quaternary ammonium can be used in conjunction with alcohol to increase the duration of the sanitizing action. The prevention of nosocomial infections involve routine and terminal cleaning. Nonflammable alcohol vapor in CO2 NAV-CO2 systems have an advantage as they do not attack metals or plastics used in medical environments, and do not contribute to antibacterial resistance.

An important and previously unrecognized means of community-associated methicillin-resistant S. aureus colonization and transmission is during sexual contact. [15]

Staff or patients who are found to carry resistant strains of S. aureus may be required to undergo "eradication therapy" which may include antiseptic washes and shampoos (such as chlorhexidine) and application of topical antibiotic ointments (such as mupirocin or neomycin) to the anterior nares of the nose.

March 2007: The BBC has reported promising experiments in UK where a vaporizer spraying some essential oils into the atmosphere reduced airborne bacterial counts by 90% and kept MRSA infections at bay. This may hold promise in MRSA infection control.