1st MRSA post... about the diagnosis

Thursday, February 05, 2009 4:57 PM
Thank you for all ur prayers. I'm still in a lot of pain and am very weak... so please keep praying...
I've been discharged from the hospital- the doctors did what they could (I mean 30 IVs of antibotics is a lot and 3 doctors) so I have been released to my parents - they made the guest room into like a sterilized little hospital room. My family has been amazing- I sent sister a picture of my face (where teh infection was) at 5am and by the time I came to in my room- she was there. I'm so blessed.
I'll write more about what happened to me... but this is a little about what it is....


What is MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus)?

Some staph bacteria are resistant to antibiotics. MRSA is a type of staph that is resistant to antibiotics called beta-lactams. Beta-lactam antibiotics include methicillin and other more common antibiotics such as oxacillin, penicillin and amoxicillin. While 25% to 30% of the population is colonized with staph, approximately 1% is colonized with MRSA.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/ar_mrsa_Invasive_FS.html

This fact sheet is a summary of the data presented in theJournal of the American Medical Association 2007;298(15):1763-1771.

The estimated number of people developing a serious MRSA infection (i.e., invasive) in 2005 was about 94,360; this is higher than estimates using other methods.

Approximately 18,650 persons died during a hospital stay related to these serious MRSA infections.


About 14% of all the infections occurred in persons without obvious exposures to healthcare.

Evaluation of the pathogens causing these infections confirmed that most of the strains associated with these serious MRSA infections were caused by strains traditionally associated with healthcare. However, the strains traditionally associated with transmission in the community are now being identified in healthcare.