LaxTV Forums | A Forum About The MCLA

Doctors said what's made the issue important to schools is that the new strains of staph have moved from hospitals into the community. And some are more resistant to antibiotic treatment.

Locker rooms are a notorious breeding ground. Staph bacteria can cause infections through open wounds or other breaks in the skin. The easiest way to transmit it is through skin-to-skin contact or by sharing items that come into close contact with skin, such as towels, bar soap and sports equipment.

Sports such as football, lacrosse and wrestling often involve players who have cuts or abrasions. A locker room culture of sharing soap or towels, or in some cases, not showering at all, can spread the infection.

A new, more invasive strain of staph is called methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. The medical community refers to this strain as "community-acquired" because it's being contracted outside hospitals.

jayjaciv wrote:Ah, another local news scare tactic on a year-old story that won't affect you unless you act like Pigpen. Refreshing.

People are bent out of shape about bird flu, but CA-MRSA is already here and, in my opinion, ranks second only to HIV as a public health threat," Dr. Chambers says. "The drugs we've relied on to treat common infections no longer work. And if we're not smart about using the few weapons we have left, this superbug will definitely morph again, to become resistant to even more antibiotics.

MRSA is so widespread that 2.3 million Americans carry the bacteria in their noses without symptoms, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2006. CA-MRSA carriers can infect others, or suddenly become ill themselves if the bacteria burrow past the body's defenses. Any break in the skin's protective barrier -- a razor nick, a scratch, even nose picking (which may injure nasal passages) -- can set the stage for a staph infection.

In the 1980s, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands faced similarly soaring rates of M.R.S.A., but nearly eradicated it. How? By screening patients and requiring health care workers treating patients with M.R.S.A. to wear gowns and gloves and use dedicated equipment to prevent the spread. The Dutch called their strategy “search and destroy.”

A growing number of hospitals in the United States have proved that such precautions work here, too. Recently, a pilot program using screening at Presbyterian University Hospital, in Pittsburgh, reduced M.R.S.A. infections by 90 percent. At a Yale-affiliated hospital in New Haven, screening reduced M.R.S.A. infections in intensive care by two-thirds.

jayjaciv wrote:And I thought Magic cured AIDS? Unless Kanye was lying...

jayjaciv wrote:Ah, another local news scare tactic on a year-old story that won't affect you unless you act like Pigpen. Refreshing.