MRSA: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

TORRINGTON – Lingle resident Kaeli Johnson noticed it while she was on vacation, around the middle of February. Just a little bump on her arm, nothing to be concerned about. It would probably disappear in a day or two, she thought. Not long after she returned home on the 20th, the bump started getting bigger, and it hurt.
“There was swelling in my veins and it was painful, I couldn’t move my arm and I had a fever and chills” Johnson said. She went to the doctor but wasn’t prepared for what he told her. “On the 26th, I found out it was MRSA; an infection that was going down my arm and eating a hole in the tissue.”
The infection was localized to her arm, but the tissue eventually erupted like a small volcano leaving a small, raw wound about the size of a quarter. Untreated, the infection could have become life threatening, but because Johnson started treatment early, the prognosis is very good that the infection will eventually disappear.
“It’s slowly getting better, but I still need to keep it wrapped,” explained Johnson. “It has been a long process, going to the doctor every other day to pack it and getting shots. I was off work for a week and a half.
“There for a while I kept asking myself, ‘Is it ever going to get better,’ but it’s getting better
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacteria that is resistant to many antibiotics and can cause a variety of problems that include skin infections, sepsis, pneumonia and bloodstream infections. Because many antibiotics are ineffective against MRSA, treatment is long and usually involves different combinations of antibiotics.
“Usually we will take a blood culture and introduce different antibiotics to see which one kills it,” explained Torrington’s Community Hospital’s Chief Nursing Officer Zach Miller about treating MRSA. “It use to be that we kept you in the hospital for weeks and weeks. But now we bandage the wound and keep it covered.”

Miller said Community Hospital diagnosed two cases of MRSA since October 1, both of which were community acquired.
“Early on, MRSA seemed to occur mainly within hospitals and nursing homes but anymore, that’s not necessarily the case,” said Miller, “Now most case come from out in the community. Kids get it through contact sports, especially when they are sweaty, especially wrestling because of the contact. So kids in contact sports need to practice good hygiene.”
Particularly susceptible to the bacteria are young children, older adults or anyone who has a weakened immune system.
“The infection is much harder on kids and the elderly. Cancer patients undergoing treatment are at risk because the treatment suppresses the immune system.”
MRSA has often been identified in the media as the “flesh-eating bacteria” though, in reality, necrotizing fasciitis is very rare and can be caused by other bacteria other than staph.
According to the Centers for Disease Control website, MRSA is not even the most common cause of necrotizing fasciitis. According to the CDC, many healthy people carry the staph bacteria on their skin and 30 percent of the population has staph bacteria in their nose. The problem occurs when the bacteria makes it way into the body.
“Soap and hot water scrubbing is what gets (the bacteria) off you,” said Miller. “The main things to keep from getting staph infections is to practice good hand hygiene, good overall hygiene and if your prescribed an antibiotic take it all, and don’t quite taking them just because you feel better.”
Miller explained not completing a prescribed antibiotic regime is one reason MRSA has been able
to evolve.
“By not completing the antibiotics, you might not completely kill the bacteria. So it develops a resistance to the antibiotic over time and after a few decades the staph mutates into a bacteria resistant to many of the antibiotics we use to count on to treat staph infections.”
Often, Vancomycin, which is administered intravenously, is used to treat MRSA, but it is very strong and can cause liver and kidney damage. So, Miller said, prevention is the best defense against MRSA.
“Hand washing is the number one prevention against the spread of MRSA. However, if someone does gets it, most of the time we can eradicate it, but it can take a lot of time.”