MRSA has been in the news so much lately. I know it kills a lot of people and can be very serious. On my tube-feeding support board (my daughter is tube-fed) there have been a few kids who got it and needed to be hospitalized because of abcesses near the tube site, or had to get the tube removed and allow to heal before placing a new tube. One kid seems to get it all the time and it just doesn't go away for long.
I went to my daughter's ped today and while I was there I asked him about MRSA and how often his patients have it, and what is the usual outcome. He said that in most cases the kids will test positive for it and when he calls them to let them know the results, their infections have already cleared up. It does not get bad very often. He doesn't even swab for it every time a kid comes in with a skin infection unless it looks really suspicious, and will only swab if it doesn't go away or keeps coming back. A classmate of mine (I'm a student) works in a doctor's office and said that they also get cases every day, and had four cases the day I talked to her. Again, most of the time it's not that serious.
In the local news every single day for over a week they have reported that certain schools would have so many students with MRSA, and that they had been treated and were back at school. Why is this all of a sudden making the nightly news? MRSA has been around for a long time. It seems like probably in most cases that they are reporting at the schools, the kids are clearing up and doing fine just as the ped was talking about today.
Can we talk about this? I don't have any medical experience except personally with my kids and myself. I'd love to hear from people who deal with MRSA on a regular basis.
Also, if a person has a suspicious skin infection do you automatically swab for it? Do they treat it differently in a hospital setting vs a clinical setting? If a person has it, are they told to isolate themselves (in a clinical setting) or are they isolated (in a hospital setting)?
Our teacher tells us that the CDC defines hand hygiene as handwashing with either plain soap or antiseptic soap and water and using alcohol-based hand rubs after your hands are clean to get the invisible germs missed by soap and water. I am not sure about taking turns on which to use...maybe I misunderstand by thinking you shold only wash your hands when they are visibly dirty and can substitute the alcohol-based rubs if they look clean?
Either you instructor is overzealous or you misunderstood. It's not BOTH handwashing and alcohol gel. Can you imagine the rate of non-compliance? We can't even get MD's to do EITHER of those things .
Cattitude
696 Posts
Either you instructor is overzealous or you misunderstood. It's not BOTH handwashing and alcohol gel. Can you imagine the rate of non-compliance? We can't even get MD's to do EITHER of those things
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http://www.cdc.gov/cleanhands/