Conducting MRSA Infection

Health care providers and visitors are required to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) and follow strict hand hygiene procedures. Contaminated rooms, surfaces, and laundry items are properly disinfected to prevent the spread of MRSA. In addition to policy and procedures, patient teaching is also helpful for preventing exposure and spread of MRSA. As aforementioned earlier, hand hygiene is key to prevent exposer or transmission of the bacteria. To properly wash your hand effectively, first scrub hands rapidly for at least 15 seconds. Next, use a disposable towel to dry them and another towel to turn off the faucet. In addition, hand sanitizer that contains 62 percent or more of alcohol may be an adequate substitute when the individual does not have access to soap and water (Mayo Clinic Staff,

Using personal items of someone who has MRSA, such as towels, wash cloths, clothes or athletic equipment.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is a bacterium that is resistant to many available high- level beta-lactam antibiotics, which include penicillins, “antistaphylococcal” penicillins and cephalosporins. Staphyloccoci are the most important bacteria that cause disease in humans. MRSA is sometimes branded as a nosocomial infection as it usually plagues patients that are receiving treatment in a hospital. The skin is the most common site of infection, where MRSA can cause cellulitis, folliculitis, or boils in the skin, but can also commonly be found in the nose, underarm, groin, upper respiratory tract, intestine, vagina and rectal areas of the body. MRSA infections occur with there is a break in the skin that allows the Methicillin resistant

MRSA is spread by contact, so for example, touching another person who has it on the skin, or by touching objects the bacteria has transferred to. These particular infections are frequent amongst those with weak immune systems and those in hospitals, nursing homes, care centers, etc., because the superbugs crop up around surgical wounds or invasive devices such as catheters or implanted feeding tubes. The

A total of 36 (40.9%) MRSA were found, of which 26 (72.2%) were isolated from surfaces, 5 (13.8%) from indoor air, 4 (11.1%) from staff and one (2.7%) from a patient. All the 36 MRSA isolates were both mecA positive and cefoxitin resistant.

Carla, your post on community acquired MRSA infection, detection, and treatment of the condition is spot on. We all walk around with a variety of bacteria on our skin, especially healthcare workers. As healthcare professionals we are in constant contact with patients with various skin conditions including MRSA so it important to follow guidelines set by our institutions to limit the exposure to ourself and other patients. In addition, to the demographic that you mention in your post at risk for acquiring MRSA, younger non-exposed hospitalized patients are at risk as well.

Prevention of Staphylococcus aureus is not as easy as most people believe either. You will hear people saying to wash your hands frequently to keep the bacteria off, but this only somewhat helps prevention. People actually always have staphylococcus bacteria living on and in their bodies. Staph just needs a chance to enter into a wound to infect someone which is why you should always wash out cuts or scraps and doctor them appropriately to prevent infection.

Staphylococcus aureus is a Gram-positive coccal bacterium which is estimated to have colonised 20-30% of the human population.1,2,3 S. aureus is normally found in the anterior nares and mucous membranes of these individuals. For the majority, this is not a problem as these people are colonised, not infected.2,3 However S. aureus is an opportunistic pathogen and if it contaminates a breach in the skin or mucous membranes, it can go on to infect any tissue in the body.3 Infection may lead to serious life threatening diseases such as pneumonia.4 Over time strains of S. aureus were able to develop resistance to antibiotics, resulting in strains known as methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Both health care-associated and community-associated strains of MRSA still respond to certain antibiotics. In some cases, antibiotics may not be necessary. For example, doctors may drain a superficial abscess caused by MRSA rather than treat the infection with drugs. In the hospital, people who are infected or colonized with MRSA often are placed in contact precautions as a measure to prevent the spread of MRSA. Visitors and health care workers caring for people in isolation may be required to wear protective garments and must follow strict hand hygiene procedures. Contaminated surfaces and laundry items should be properly disinfected. Preventing MRSA includes careful hand washing remains your best defense against germs. Carry a small bottle of hand sanitizer containing at least 62 percent alcohol for times when you don't have access to soap and water. Keep cuts and abrasions clean and covered with sterile, dry bandages until they heal. The pus from infected sores may contain MRSA, and keeping wounds covered will help prevent the bacteria from spreading. Avoid sharing personal items such as towels, sheets, razors, clothing and athletic

You should always make sure that you wash your hands so that infections like MRSA do not spread.

Risk factors of CA-MRSA include: skin-to-skin contact with an infected person, loss of integrity allowing penetration of bacteria into the body, contact with contaminated items and surfaces, crowded living conditions, sharing personal items, poor hygiene, having a history of ectopic dermatitis, and exposure to family members or friends who work in a health care setting. Also, there are a number of risk factors for CA-MRSA among student athletes including: playing close contact sports, receiving a skin abrasion and trauma, a high BMI, participating in cosmetic body shaving, coming into contact with a draining lesion or is a carrier of MRSA, and sharing contaminated equipment (Alex & Letizia,

In a hospital where patients are getting infected with MRSA, which had been detected from their nose secretions and some from skin infections, it is very important to take immediate preventive and control measures to fight against MRSA. Various strategies can be applied to prevent and control MRSA as well as to treat MRSA associates infection in order to completely eradicate MRSA threat from the hospital. Various measures that can be taken to tackle such situation are:

Their objective was to “evaluate and characterize MRSA and staphylococci carriage and conversion rates in nursing students across clinical semester rotations and to describe risk factors” (Rhode et al., 2012). This longitudinal study discovered that none of the students contracted MRSA over the course of five hospital based clinical rotations. They believe that educating the participants of the study with emphasis on hygiene, fomites, reservoirs and prevention minded thinking had a strong impact on the MRSA colonization remaining at zero. The study highlights the importance of proper education and compliance with proper infection control

As nurses, taking care of patients with MRSA can be seen in everyday practice. It can be seen in patients with sepsis from an infected wound, patients who have pneumonia, or patients who only have a colonization for it (“Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), 2015”). Regardless if it’s colonization or an active infection, and the source of the infection, proper policies and procedures are in place to reduce the transmission of MRSA to other patients in the hospital or nursing home setting. This includes performing proper hand hygiene and standard precautions, as well as wearing protective gown and gloves when entering the patient’s room. It is very important to adhere to these policies and procedures and educate others on the importance of these policies and procedures to reduce the transmission of MRSA to others.

I found your post very informative. I wouldn’t have thought of this bacteria in a positive light. I would like to expand on Professor Rubin’s post in regards to the Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and the general public. I found it interesting that there is a different kind of MRSA that affects people who are generally pretty healthy. It is called CA-MRSA and according to the WebMD people who may be at risk for this disease are people who live in crowded spaces and share skin-to-skin contact. Examples of people who are susceptible to CA-MRSA are athletes, prison inmates, and children at daycare facilities (WebMD, n.d.).