MRSA Causes Death of Student in VirginiaIt is Day 4 of International Infection Prevention Week and I write with sad news today. You probably heard the announcement yesterday on national news of the death of a high school student in Virginia. The 17-year-old high school senior, Ashton Bonds, died of complications of MRSA infection. Announcements like this really bring home the reality of community-acquired infections. The July (?) 2007 issue of Readers' Digest had a really emotional story about athletes who have died of MRSA infection. The reality is that >90,000 Americans get infections caused by MRSA - methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Most of them are just mild skin infections but some are invasive bloodstream infections causing death. We have been dealing with MRSA in hospitals and long-term care facilities for many years - in the USA, Europe and Japan. MRSA has become more prevalent in prisons, gyms, locker rooms in schools, even NFL locker rooms and in poor urban neighborhoods. Let me back up: MRSA is an antibiotic-resistant form of Staph aureus. Staph aureus once caused deaths in newborn nurseries in the 1950's - back when I was a baby. Treatment with Penicillin put a stop to these horrible outbreaks. But overuse, misuse, and abuse of Penicillin and other antibiotics over the years have pushed this nanobug to develop protection and resistance to the drugs intended to destroy them - it is an evolution/survival thing..JPG) The image we chose for the MRSA nanobug begins with the shape of Staphylococcus aureus (a cluster of grapes) and has a mean face and a forcefield around it to symbolize the resistance. The bacteria are transmitted in the same way and are essentially the same EXCEPT for treatment. The environment is full of Staphylococcus  aureus - it is considered normal flora on the skin of humans. The Stapylococcus aureus nanobug says, "I'm OK on your skin, but don't let me get in!" But now we know that a good percentage of the Staphylococcus aureus that colonizes our skin is resistant (MRSA). So when we "let it get in" - we have big treatment challenges and potential failures - especially if the person is diabetic or has an underlying chronic illness or infection.
In the district where Ashton had attended school, 21 schools were closed yesterday for "cleaning". I would never criticize thorough cleaning of schools, but I wonder if the school officials, students, parents are aware of the magnitude of the issue of MRSA and the true means of transmission. Yesterday, while the environment was being cleaned, I thought maybe they should have done some intensive training for everyone on the subject of hand hygiene. I also wonder if people are getting the message about "good stewardship" of antibiotics. More on that later. My condolences to Ashton's family and to all the families of people who have suffered with MRSA infection (or any other infection, for that matter).
This entry was posted on October 18th, 2007 at 3:31 pm. RSS
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Reply #1 on : Thu October 18, 2007, 18:46:51