I am a hospitalist physician.
I wear street clothes to work and back home
I would wager if you swab every hospital workers nasal mucose that over 1/2 of us are carriers of MRSA
What would you practically do? Put every hospital worker on broad spectrum antibiotics that would only increase resistance?
MRSA is around and has been for years. It does not scare me nearly as much as most resistant bacterial infections (pseudomonas, vre, etc)
We see nearly as many cases of MRSA acquired in the community now as we do in the hospital. The bacteria is in the community at large and I do not see a practical way of stopping it. But we can run up huge tabs in attempting to control a horse that is long out of the barn.
FRegards,
Mom MD: What is a “hospitalist physician”? Are you an Infectious Disease MD? Just asking.
democratsaremyenemy: Better check your sources.
cherry: >>”.....please point to one case where anybody contracted MRSA from someone’s uniform....”<<
From the link below:
“The study found about 85 percent of all invasive MRSA infections were associated with health care settings, of which two-thirds surfaced in the community among people who were hospitalized, underwent a medical procedure or resided in a long-term care facility within the previous year. In contrast, about 15 percent of reported infections were considered to be community-associated, which means that the infection occurred in people without documented health care risk factors.”
“About 1 out every 12 deaths during hospitalization with a serious MRSA disease occurs in persons admitted for community-associated MRSA infection, the remaining 11 of every 12 deaths are associated with MRSA related to healthcare exposures;..”
“Do not share personal items. Avoid sharing personal items such as towels, washcloths, razors, CLOTHING, or UNIFORMS that may have had contact with the infected wound or bandage. Wash sheets, towels, and clothes that become soiled with water and laundry detergent. Drying clothes in a hot dryer, rather than air-drying, also helps kill bacteria in CLOTHES.”