MRSA-Should You Be Scared of Staph Infections?

It's scary enough just knowing you have to go into the hospital for surgery or some other procedure. It's even scarier to think you could come out sicker than when you went in. But it's downright terrifying to think that you could contract a deadly bacterial infection without going anywhere near a hospital. Unfortunately, that's the harsh reality we're facing with MRSA-a potentially lethal strain of bacteria known as methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus.

After decades of over-prescribing antibiotics, doctors have all but forced these staph bacteria to mutate, growing stronger with each generation and making themselves immune to antibiotics that once were effective against them. Hospitals have been battling MRSA (often pronounced as 'mersa') for many years, but it has now escaped the confines of the hospital walls.

It's alarming to me that MRSA had to reach this level before news of its dire consequences was made known to the public at large. Healthcare workers have been well aware of its existence for a very long time. No longer the problem of just hospitals and nursing homes, these deadly bacteria are spreading infection in gyms, locker rooms, prisons, urban neighborhoods and schools.

Estimates are already being made that deaths from fatal staph infections may well exceed those caused by AIDS. The cause for concern is real. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the overall incidence rate is about 32 invasive infections per 100,000 people, a figure that JAMA describes as "astounding".

Only about a fourth of the cases studied involved hospitalized patients, but more than half were somewhere in the health care system, such as those having undergone recent surgery or people on dialysis. The major way this deadly superbug spreads is through open wounds and from contact with medical equipment. The problem is compounded by the fact that healthy people carry staph bacteria on their skin or in their noses and can spread it by direct skin to skin contact with another person.

Many staph infections present themselves as a mild skin infection. But if the staph bacteria enter the bloodstream or destroy flesh, they can be fatal. The federal Center for Disease Control (CDC) is calling MRSA a "major public health concern". In 2005, the year the research was done, it was estimated there were more than 94,000 cases nationwide. Of those, roughly 19,000 people died. That same year, AIDS killed just over 17,000 people.

In Virginia, where a 17 year old recently died after MRSA infected his liver, lungs and the muscles of his heart, Governor Tim Kaine has signed an emergency regulation that requires labs to report confirmed cases of MRSA to the Virginia Department of Health so the state can keep better tabs on the infection.

It is now common practice in many hospitals to screen patients for MRSA as they enter the hospital setting. But it's being discovered in schools and daycare centers and places that have no such screening methods. Athletes, normally considered some of our strongest, healthiest citizens are considered to have a high risk of contracting the disease. Once MRSA takes hold, it can take as little as 12 hours for someone to go from feeling fine to needing immediate hospitalization.