MRSA and CF Children

Link: The Shawnee Dispatch / Great strides help family cope.

In July 2005, however, he got a lung infection he couldn’t seem to shake. When it was clear this was not a routine infection, Dalton was hospitalized, and the family learned he had developed MRSA, or a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection. “It’s not uncommon as a phase or progression of CF, when they develop different lung bacterias, and unfortunately since it’s antibiotic-resistant, it’s very difficult to manage,” Jennifer said. “It has caused his pulmonary function to decrease a great deal, which is why he’s now home-schooled.” And every now and then, too much of the infection builds up, which means a return to the hospital. In the past two years on average, Dalton is in the hospital every three months, anywhere from 10 to 17 days at a time. “It’s a constant, chronic condition, and so it’s a daily, constant work to try to keep his lungs healthy,” Jennifer said. The only method of fighting the MRSA is to get as much of it out of Dalton’s lungs as possible. So he takes inhaled medications that try to thin secretions so he can cough them up and respiratory therapy that includes a vibrating vest that shakes his body with different frequencies to loosen the secretions in his lungs so he can cough them up.