MRSA (Mersa, Staph) Questions

The war of words over MRSA

Link: 'Not rocket science' or 'No silver bullet'? Media and Government Discourses about MRSA and Cleanliness -- Koteyko et al., 10.1093/applin/amn006 -- Applied Linguistics.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), commonly called a superbug, has recently been a major political issue in the UK, playing a significant role in debates over health policy in the general election held in 2005. While science recognizes the lack of evidence with regards to the effectiveness of existing measures implemented to control and prevent MRSA, the UK media coverage is dominated by articles that appeal to common sense and practical experience calling for more government interventions to combat the bug. In this paper we explore how uncertainty surrounding the origin and spread of MRSA is portrayed in debates within the media and policy-circles to particular political ends. Using established techniques of discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, we examine the assumptions, judgements, and contentions that structure two discourses of MRSA: according to one discourse MRSA is ‘not rocket science’ and there are ‘simple’ ways of coping with the risk of infection, whereas according to another discourse MRSA is a more complex matter and there is ‘no silver bullet’. The analysis of different storylines through which specific ideas of ‘blame’, ‘responsibility’, and ‘urgency’ are attributed helps to explain how different ‘constructions’ of causes for the rise in MRSA emerged and led to discourses of blame and defence centred on cleanliness.

Hospitals are dangerous and dirty places, says GP

Link: Hospitals are dangerous and dirty places, says GP | News.

A leading north London GP has criticised hospitals as "dangerous and dirty places" where the sick should only be treated as a last resort. Paddy Glackin, who heads a doctors' group representing 250,000 patients, told the Standard many hospitals are impersonal where old people beg not to be sent for treatment. He said: "Hospitals are dangerous and dirty places on the whole. It's well established and the figures are there that many people die in hospitals not just because they are ill but because they actually get ill in hospital. "The bugs that are running around in hospitals are incredibly dangerous." Dr Glackin is a GP in Islington but also chairman of the Camden Local Medical Committee, a body representing about 400 doctors in the borough.

Bringing hospital infections down to zero

Link: Bringing hospital infections down to zero - Examiner.com.

Maryland hospital safety experts are looking at a new standard for many preventive infections and mishaps that can harm the most vulnerable patients: zero. “Zero is the answer. It’s been a tremendous cultural change in this state,” said Dr. Bill Minogue, director of the Maryland Patient Safety Center. “We’ve almost eliminated central line [IV] infections in the state. It’s been zero in many hospitals for many, many months.” Many of those infections, Minogue said, involved drug-resistant methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, bacteria.

Participation low at first MRSA forums

Link: Participation low at first MRSA forums.

Turnout was far lower than expected Monday at the first of several community forums in the county being held to raise awareness about methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, a staph bacteria that is resistant to many common antibiotics. ‘‘It was probably on the lower end of the spectrum,” said Jessica Ronan, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Hospital Association. She said she expects that attendance at each event will vary. ‘‘Obviously we would want more people rather than less to turn out.” Monday’s forum, held by Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, was part of a statewide initiative to raise awareness about MRSA, which has been in the spotlight the past six months after it was reported in public schools. Since August, there have been 60 cases of MRSA reported in Montgomery County Public Schools. Merry King, a special education teacher at Hoover Middle School, died of the disease in December.

Hospitals holding MRSA forums for parents

Link: Maryland Daily Record.

The Maryland Hospital Association has rallied its members coordinate a series of community forums on Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, in hopes of sidestepping a panic over the infection and helping prevent its spread. In the coming weeks, 22 of Maryland’s 47 hospitals will hold the free educational forums, several more are planning them and a few have already held the events. The forums generally target the parents of school-age children in their communities, ranging from Western Maryland to the Eastern Shore to Baltimore County, according to the Maryland Hospital Association.

Search and destroy call re MRSA in the US

Link: Albany Democrat Herald: Archived Articles.

All health care workers must develop a “search and destroy” mentality if they hope to take control of what has become an epidemic of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus — commonly called MRSA — Dr. William Jarvis told more than 60 Samaritan Health Services staff members Tuesday evening at the Phoenix Inn. The national MRSA infection rate has exploded in the last 20 years, said Jarvis, an internationally respected expert, author and lecturer concerning infectious diseases. He says it has spread to the point that “people are demanding the government do something about it. Eight states already have MRSA legislation in the works.” Jarvis emphasized repeatedly that there is hope and the spread of MRSA is preventable. But changing people’s attitudes and work habits is almost always met with resistance, he said. If hospitals and other health care providers don’t implement change on their own, the government will soon force them to do so, he predicts.

WMHS to hold forum on MRSA

Link: WMHS to hold forum on MRSA - Keyser, WV - Mineral Daily News-Tribune.

The Western Maryland Health System (WMHS) wil host a forum to educate the community about what precautions can be taken to prevent and reduce their risk of infection from Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus (MRSA), a virulent strain of bacteria commonly found on the skin that has been making headlines in Maryland and throughout the nation. The forum will be held Wednesday, March 5, at 6  p.m. at the Braddock Campus Auditorium. WMHS is joining other Maryland hospitals in a statewide initiative, coordinated by the Maryland Hospital Association, which is designed to not only provide communities with information about reducing their risks, but to review the differences between health care-associated MRSA and community-associated MRSA and share the strategies hospitals are using to prevent and reduce MRSA and other infections.

Cardboard nurses in MRSA campaign spark cash row

Link: BBC NEWS | England | Tyne | Cardboard nurses spark cash row.

A Northumberland doctor has criticised health bosses who paid for cardboard nurses to promote hygiene at a time when GP services are facing cuts. Dr Robert Lambourn, who works in Wooler, said he considered the move an inappropriate use of public cash. But regional health bosses, who are spending �5m on a campaign to reduce the spread of MRSA, defended the move as potentially life-saving. The cardboard cut-outs have been sent to surgeries and health centres.

'We are already doing PM's 'deep cleaning idea'

Link: 'We are already doing PM's 'deep cleaning idea' - Aylesbury Today.

STOKE Mandeville Hospital is leading the way in combating superbugs and has been doing so long before the Prime Minister made a speech on the issue recently, a spokesman said. PM Gordon Brown was speaking at the Labour party conference in Bournemouth when he vowed to give all hospitals a deep clean over the next 12 months in a bid to combat infections like MRSA and Clostridium difficile. Mr Brown was criticised for pandering to the popular vote and health officials want to remind people that MRSA is mainly a people-borne disease. However a spokesman for Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust said that the C. diff spores can survive for a long time and a chlorine based disinfectant is needed to combat the problem.

Onslaught of MRSA Cases at Schools Puts Education Kit in Spotlight

Link: Onslaught of MRSA Cases at Schools Puts Education Kit in Spotlight.

“We created the kit about eight months ago as a way to help kids and schools learn about MRSA,” said Steve Smith, president of Tec Labs, the company behind the kit. “But when we started letting schools know about it there was very little interest. No one wanted to learn about MRSA. So, we had this really nifty educational tool that was all dressed up with no where to go.” Like Smith, Lisa Leverich, the company’s marketing coordinator, thought the kit would be a hit right off the bat. “We knew MRSA was a problem,” said Leverich. “What we didn’t know is that MRSA was nearly unheard of in the general public.” “We’d been entrenched in the world of MRSA for about 5 years because we’d been developing StaphAseptic,” Smith explained, referring to his company’s over-the-counter wound care ointment for preventing MRSA. “But when we started getting the word out we realized that very few people outside of the medical community knew what MRSA was.” So, what created the sudden interest in the kits? “That would be this year’s high school football season,” said Leverich definitively. “MRSA outbreaks are everywhere this year. I think eight months ago we might have been just a little ahead of the curve.”