MRSA Infections
MRSA is the Patients Fault, say Dutch
Staphylococcus aureus (SA) is a bacterium that lives harmlessly in the noses or on the skin of around 25 - 30% of the UK’s population. Many of the carriers only realise that they are hosting this bacterium when confronted with minor problems such as skin infections or boils. Many of these infections are easily treatable with antibiotics such as methicillin and, in the past, even serious SA infections were treatable with antibiotics derived from or similar to methicillin. However, over the last 50 years certain strains of SA have become resistant to methicillin, as well as a number of other antibiotics. These ‘super-strains’ are known as Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. MRSA is notoriously difficult to treat and requires hospital treatment. However, in some cases, the contraction of MRSA can result in more serious conditions, such as blood poisoning or infection of the heart, lungs or bones. For more vulnerable victims, such as the very young or the very old, these complications can prove fatal.
But whose fault is MRSA?
MRSA is very easily transmitted between people, generally from hand-to-hand contact. It generally only becomes a physical threat when it gains access to the inside of the body. Previous perception assumed that MRSA had formed in communities and then been brought into hospitals by nurses, patients and visitors alike. However, a recent study by Hajo Grundmann of the University Medical Centre in Groningen in the Netherlands suggests that MRSA is spread by a core group who repeatedly travel between hospitals. This group of people has been identified by the study as frail or elderly people with on-going health problems.
Mr. Grundmann said that “the exciting thing is that if we know that MRSA is spread by this core group who are going back and forth between hospitals, we can do something about it and we may ultimately be able to eradicate MRSA.” His findings back up the notion that extra screening could help reduce the number of MRSA infections. This would require doctors to identify people who move between hospitals and other health care facilities, such as nursing homes.
Screening these potential carriers for MRSA could also see a dramatic decrease in the number of cases in UK hospitals. In light of this study, the Health Protection Association has announced that it intends to expand its already-existing screening programme. They said: “The Department of Health has established a policy that across the NHS all relevant elective admissions should be tested for the presence of MRSA, extending to all admissions - including emergencies - by 2010-11. This enables treatment, for example, special washes or ointments to be given to reduce or clear MRSA in patients before surgery.”
A new way to tackle MRSA
The reaction in the healthcare industry seems to be one of uniform delight. Professor Richard James of the Centre for Healthcare Associated Infections at the University of Nottingham declared the research to be “a tour de force”. The Dutch scientists behind the study believe that by following their recommendations, we may be able to break the cycle of transmission for MRSA and then concentrate in eradicating it from our hospitals entirely.
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