Practical Practitioner
By: Pamela Egan, FNP-C CDE
MRSA: Drug-resistant “Superbugs” can survive for weeks on surfaces
Dear Pam,
My 14 year old son has had a rash on his trunk since he went tubing in the river. He has just been diagnosed with MRSA and is on antibiotics. Does this mean he should stay out of the river?
During the summer, skin rash infections are frequently seen after swimming in the river. The river has lots of wood which is a breeding ground for bacteria. The summer heat makes matters even worse. It is important to shower with an antibacterial soap after swimming, tubing, skiing, etc. in the river. He should definitely stay out of the river until his infection clears. There’s nothing worse than 6 weeks of intravenous antibiotics for a resistant Staph infection.
Surprisingly, hospitals have the worse kind of bacteria. The mutated, drug-resistant “superbugs” that cause an increasing number of hospital infections and deaths can live for weeks on bed linens, computer keyboards and under acrylic fingernails, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.
The study supports other research that shows super-strict hygiene is needed to battle the bacteria, some of which are now nearly impossible to kill even with the strongest antibiotics.
A team at sanitation-services company Ecolab Inc. dabbed methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureaus (MRSA) onto samples of bed linen, keyboard covers and acrylic fingernails.
MRSA could be detected eight weeks later on acrylic fingernails, six weeks later on computer keyboard covers and five days later on bed linens, the researchers told a meeting in Atlanta of the American Society for Microbiology.
The results of this study clearly demonstrate the need for frequent hand-washing and environmental disinfection in health care settings.
Staphylococcus aureus is usually harmless and very common, found on skin or in the noses of about 30 percent of people. It can cause stubborn problems such as rashes and boils, an infection often mistaken for a spider bite. In hospitals, MRSA can cause serious and sometimes deadly infections, including necrotizing fasciitis or “flesh-eating” disease. It resists almost everything but an intravenous antibiotic called vancomycin.
A study at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, published in April, found that computer keyboards can contaminate the fingers, bare or gloved, of a nurse or doctor, who could then transfer bacteria to patients.
Other studies have shown that, despite the importance of hand-washing, doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals often fail to do so or do not wash thoroughly.
If you should happen to require hospitalization, insist that all healthcare personnel wash their hands prior to touching you. Prevention is the best medicine!
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