It’s as easily contracted as it is prevented. Benign in many
cases, the bacteria that caused the MRSA staph infection that
sickened a Gilroy High School coach can be lethal if left
untreated.
It’s as easily contracted as it is prevented. Benign in many cases, the bacteria that caused the MRSA staph infection that sickened a Gilroy High School coach can be lethal if left untreated.
On any given day, Margaret Luchsinger, employee health and infection control coordinator at Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy, said she treats about two cases of MRSA. However, many patients are not necessarily infected with MRSA. They are merely carriers of the bacteria. Not every case of MRSA is an active infection, she said. This can make it difficult to contain because carriers often do not show symptoms.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA (pronounced mer-sa), is an old foe of the medical profession but has become more prevalent in recent years. Portrayed by the media as a “superbug,”
MRSA is actually easily prevented by practices as simple as frequent hand washing. Although MRSA is resistant to traditional antibiotics, the infection is treatable.
“We carry normal staph on our skin all the time,” Luchsinger said. “It’s not that big a deal.” But when broken or irritated skin comes into contact with the more aggressive MRSA, infection can develop. For years, MRSA infections occurred mainly in hospitals, but recently, more harmful strains emerged in the community.
The bacteria recently killed two students on the East Coast and has caused a string of MRSA cases in Sacramento and schools near San Francisco. Since then, school health professionals and educators across the country are dealing with an influx of information about MRSA. The risk to uninfected students of contracting MRSA depends on the number of students infected with MRSA, not the severity of the infection, according to a bulletin distributed by the California Department of Public Health.
“I’ve learned a lot about staph lately,” said James Maxwell, Principal of Gilroy High School. The Gilroy Unified School District disseminated several bulletins to its administration and staff recently following the hospitalization of a GHS wrestling coach with MRSA.
Recent test results of wrestling proved negative for MRSA. Coach Mike Koester is finishing up his third week of the intravenously administered antibiotic vancomycin, a drug Luchsinger refers to as “the big guns.” Vancomycin is usually reserved as a last resort by the medical community and is only prescribed when absolutely necessary, said Karen Aeschliman, infection control practitioner at Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital in Hollister
“MRSA is increasing nationwide and is primarily transmitted in the community,” Aeschliman said. “There are not many antibiotics to treat it.”
“There used to be two distinctive strands – community acquired and hospital acquired. Now the community acquired is everywhere. Children are getting it in the schools and (during) athletics. Most people come in with what they think is a spider bite,” Luchsinger said. She advises patients to get “back to the basics” by washing their hands. Hand washing is the single most important preventative measure against MRSA, she said.
After MRSA is contracted, patients should take their full dosage of antibiotics to effectively combat the infection.
“People stop taking their antibiotics before they should and the bug evolves,” said Luchsinger. “The bugs are getting smarter.”
Traditionally, it takes 48 to 72 hours to get the results back from a MRSA culture. With the increase in community-acquired strains of MRSA, Saint Louise hopes to obtain a new technology that churns out test results in two hours, rather than two days. The GeneExpert machine, as it is called, will help doctors at Saint Louise actively check all incoming patients for MRSA and isolate the infection so that it can be treated immediately, before it spreads to another part of the patient’s body or another patient altogether.
