We all carry MRSA in our nasal passages and on our skin. It's beneficial to us because it gets rid of foreign bacteria we come in contact with. However, with people whose health is compromised they can be vulnerable to the MRSA and become infected by it.
People in hospitals and other facilities are also prone to MRSA because these facilities go to such lengths to keep everything clean that the MRSA has to get stronger in order to survive this environment and when the MRSA gets stronger it can also pose a problem to humans.
MRSA is not an airborne infection. It's transferred from one person to another by sharing razors or towels or coming into skin to skin contact with someone who has it and the person coming into contact with it, in order to catch it, has to have an open sore on their skin. I've heard that the easiest way to catch it is from a nurse or other hospital personnel who carry it from one patient to another.
I've had it twice and I've never been so sick in my life.
The facility should provide personal protective equipment (PPE) outside your mom's door. Disposable gowns and gloves that are dumped in a special bin after the visit.
If it was 'caught' in a hospital, it is called HA-MRSA. But basically can be picked up from various things.
If you are visiting, make sure you disinfect your hands before and after visit. All clothing and bedding should be washed and disinfected.
If you are offer a plastic pinny then use it. Plastic gloves (the very thin type) would also be a good idea. Better be safe than sorry with this one.
The infected area/s MUST be kept clean and covered.
I used to work in a hospital and any patient with this was isolated.
It is a little bit of a scary one but can be managed with careful procedures.
I expect your mother will be feeling a little scared and lonely, so make sure you follow ALL procedures but keep up the visits. I have put the recommended hand cleaning at the bottom for you.
Good luck
Wash your hands. Careful hand washing remains your best defense against germs. Scrub hands briskly for at least 15 seconds, then dry them with a disposable towel and use another towel to turn off the faucet. 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
I do know that patients being admitted to hospital are swabbed to see if they are carriers of resistant infections, including MRSA. If this, or something like it, is how your mother was found to be carrying MRSA then it is only something you need to be aware of and to report to any people providing her with medical, nursing or personal care. It's a matter of infection control; the MRSA won't in itself make her ill unless it gets in to some part of her body or her system where it shouldn't be.
If she is actively infected - for example, if she has had surgery and it has been found in a wound - then it will need treatment; and you must discuss the plan with her doctors.
While it is true we all carry bacteria in our nasal passages according to the CDC "Studies show that about one in three (33%) people carry staph in their nose, usually without any illness. Two in 100 people carry MRSA"
My father had hospital acquired MRSA (Methicillin resistant staph aureus infection) twice, and VRSA (Vancomycin resistant staph aureus) once. As explained by medical staff, MRSA is resistant to Methicillin, and was treated with another antibiotic: Vancomycin.
Vancomycin was the harder infection to treat b/c, at that time, it was apparently the only other drug used to treat these resistant strains.
He acquired each of them while in a hospital. The onset was very quick; with the VRSA, I had been visiting him, he was doing well, but by the time I got home about 45 minutes later, BP had crashed and he had to be immediately transferred to ICU.
Your mother should be isolated and not in a room with anyone else, to protect her as well as another patient and any visitors.
Buzzy offers good advice to keep visiting her, taking the necessary precautions. Isolation can be frightening, unsettling, and Mom needs a lot of support now. With the VRSA, my father was more or less in and out of a coherent state; I'm not sure he even knew I was there.
So I took a bunch of "thinking of you" cards and left them in his room, asking the staff to give them to him if he woke up while I was gone. He could read them over and over and could remember that he might be isolated, but he wasn't forgotten or alone and was always in my thoughts.
Sometimes I just wrote short comments on the weather, what I was doing...not so much the standard "get well" b/c that seemed somewhat generic if not ineffective.
As Buzzy states, you need to protect yourself as well as him; if I remember correctly, I had to "glove and gown" when I visited.
In our situation, I think a big factor was an already compromised immune system and other serious health issues.
These are very serious infections, but they can be cured.
My mom got MRSA in the hospital and I guess because she was over 78 the doctor told me "oh what do you expect she is 78...really!! She got it in her blood which is not something you can get from being in the general public...once in the bloodstream it is very difficult to treat. If treated properly yes the patient will survive, but in my mom's case they did not care about curing her as much as they cared about getting paid. They KILLED HER and there was nothing we could do because the evil healthcare folks drugged her when they knew I was coming to get POA so she never was able to sign the form and so they put a bunch of LIES in her files and would not release anything to me who was the person giving all the permission for all healthcare treatment.
I definitely have absolutely NO RESPECT OR FAITH IN OUR HEALTHCARE SYSTEM. I did entensive research and was alarmed how the healthcare industry is the ONLY industry that is allowed to operate without any accountability. So they can just kill folks and get away with it.
Sometimes called staff. I’ve had several family members come in contact with MRSA. An infectious disease doctor told me it could be picked up from a shopping cart. It’s very contagious. My MIL had it after a surgery and could not be transferred to a NH until it was cleared up. Be very careful. My husband got it. We aren’t sure how. I had to dress his wound three times a day. Very detailed instructions. It worked out but you don’t want to take any chances. Your mother got it from someone. Some folks are carriers. One of my cousins was on dialysis. He said they were routinely given nasal swabs to see if they had the germs. Not sure if they do that at NHs. People think they have a spider bite but it’s usually MRSA. I hope your mom is better soon.
Hey, folks, we all carry assorted staphylococcus bacteria in our bodies, skin, etc without trouble. But MRSA is specifically staph-aureus that has acquired immunity to a specific antibiotic and then multiplied. We do NOT all carry MRSA, though once someone has been sick with it they will often not be able to get rid of it for a long time if ever, and may 'carry' it without becoming ill again.
In the hospital where I trained we did routinely screen for MRSA on admission. If the patient tested positive, we used full contact precautions to avoid passing it from one patient to another.
If your family member tested positive on admission, you might consider asking to be screened yourself.
A good friend of my family is currently dying of HA-MRSA he acquired during an emergency surgery in one of the best hospitals in Canada...it's a huge problem in North America and not something to take lightly.
People in hospitals and other facilities are also prone to MRSA because these facilities go to such lengths to keep everything clean that the MRSA has to get stronger in order to survive this environment and when the MRSA gets stronger it can also pose a problem to humans.
MRSA is not an airborne infection. It's transferred from one person to another by sharing razors or towels or coming into skin to skin contact with someone who has it and the person coming into contact with it, in order to catch it, has to have an open sore on their skin. I've heard that the easiest way to catch it is from a nurse or other hospital personnel who carry it from one patient to another.
I've had it twice and I've never been so sick in my life.
The facility should provide personal protective equipment (PPE) outside your mom's door. Disposable gowns and gloves that are dumped in a special bin after the visit.
If it was 'caught' in a hospital, it is called HA-MRSA. But basically can be picked up from various things.
If you are visiting, make sure you disinfect your hands before and after visit. All clothing and bedding should be washed and disinfected.
If you are offer a plastic pinny then use it. Plastic gloves (the very thin type) would also be a good idea. Better be safe than sorry with this one.
The infected area/s MUST be kept clean and covered.
I used to work in a hospital and any patient with this was isolated.
It is a little bit of a scary one but can be managed with careful procedures.
I expect your mother will be feeling a little scared and lonely, so make sure you follow ALL procedures but keep up the visits. I have put the recommended hand cleaning at the bottom for you.
Good luck
Wash your hands. Careful hand washing remains your best defense against germs. Scrub hands briskly for at least 15 seconds, then dry them with a disposable towel and use another towel to turn off the faucet. 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
I do know that patients being admitted to hospital are swabbed to see if they are carriers of resistant infections, including MRSA. If this, or something like it, is how your mother was found to be carrying MRSA then it is only something you need to be aware of and to report to any people providing her with medical, nursing or personal care. It's a matter of infection control; the MRSA won't in itself make her ill unless it gets in to some part of her body or her system where it shouldn't be.
If she is actively infected - for example, if she has had surgery and it has been found in a wound - then it will need treatment; and you must discuss the plan with her doctors.
Vancomycin was the harder infection to treat b/c, at that time, it was apparently the only other drug used to treat these resistant strains.
He acquired each of them while in a hospital. The onset was very quick; with the VRSA, I had been visiting him, he was doing well, but by the time I got home about 45 minutes later, BP had crashed and he had to be immediately transferred to ICU.
Your mother should be isolated and not in a room with anyone else, to protect her as well as another patient and any visitors.
Buzzy offers good advice to keep visiting her, taking the necessary precautions. Isolation can be frightening, unsettling, and Mom needs a lot of support now. With the VRSA, my father was more or less in and out of a coherent state; I'm not sure he even knew I was there.
So I took a bunch of "thinking of you" cards and left them in his room, asking the staff to give them to him if he woke up while I was gone. He could read them over and over and could remember that he might be isolated, but he wasn't forgotten or alone and was always in my thoughts.
Sometimes I just wrote short comments on the weather, what I was doing...not so much the standard "get well" b/c that seemed somewhat generic if not ineffective.
As Buzzy states, you need to protect yourself as well as him; if I remember correctly, I had to "glove and gown" when I visited.
In our situation, I think a big factor was an already compromised immune system and other serious health issues.
These are very serious infections, but they can be cured.
I definitely have absolutely NO RESPECT OR FAITH IN OUR HEALTHCARE SYSTEM. I did entensive research and was alarmed how the healthcare industry is the ONLY industry that is allowed to operate without any accountability. So they can just kill folks and get away with it.
My husband got it. We aren’t sure how. I had to dress his wound three times a day. Very detailed instructions. It worked out but you don’t want to take any chances. Your mother got it from someone. Some folks are carriers.
One of my cousins was on dialysis. He said they were routinely given nasal swabs to see if they had the germs. Not sure if they do that at NHs.
People think they have a spider bite but it’s usually MRSA.
I hope your mom is better soon.
In the hospital where I trained we did routinely screen for MRSA on admission. If the patient tested positive, we used full contact precautions to avoid passing it from one patient to another.
If your family member tested positive on admission, you might consider asking to be screened yourself.
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