News that an antibiotics-resistant bug might be killing more Americans than HIV/AIDS is prompting doctors in Snohomish County to call for more prevention against infections caused by the pathogen.
More and more people are suffering from soft-tissue and skin infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. Sometimes those infections lead to life-threatening complications.
“I’m pretty confident that we have thousands of cases of MRSA each year in Snohomish County,” said Dr. Gary Goldbaum, health officer for the Snohomish Health District.
Local data is scarce.
Washington state doesn’t require hospitals to report MRSA infection cases. Nor are there specific, uniform guidelines to deal with patients who have the infection. Local doctors say that they’ve been aware of the danger of drug-resistant bacteria, including MRSA, for several years.
“We’ve seen death due to this organism,” said Dr. Yuan-Po Tu, associate medical director at the Everett Clinic.
Doctors agree that more prevention is needed now to save lives.
Medical institutions and public health agencies play a role in stopping MRSA from spreading, but the first line of defense belongs to individuals.
In short: Wash your hands.
“Every time we get a new bug, we go back to the basics: You have something to do with prevention,” said Mary Selecky, Washington state’s secretary of health.
The bacterium made national headlines after a study last week appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, where researchers analyzed about 9,000 cases of invasive MRSA. They extrapolated data to the entire U.S. population and estimated that the bug might be killing about 19,000 people annually in the country.
If the estimate is accurate, that’s more than the number of people who die of HIV/AIDS each year.
The study, considered the biggest and most comprehensive to date, showed that the bug’s impact is much greater than scientists had thought.
The study is a starting point for grasping the issue, said Dr. Gary Preston, an epidemiologist for Providence Everett Medical Center, Cascade Valley Hospital in Arlington and Valley General Hospital in Monroe.
It only covers invasive MRSA cases, but omits skin and soft-tissue infections caused by the bug, which are much more common.
The bug has existed for decades on people’s skin and in human noses, Tu said.
Its behavior and health risks have changed in recent years. The Everett Clinic has taken cultures to test for staph since 2001. Their data indicates that more and more staph has become resistant to traditional antibiotics.
Experts believe the overuse and inappropriate use of antibiotics have contributed to the rapid increase of MRSA. People shouldn’t take antibiotics for just a cold; doing so makes their bodies more susceptible to bacterial infections, local doctors said.
When they take antibiotics for such infections, they need to make sure they are following a doctor’s instructions. Otherwise, incomplete killing of the bacteria leads to mutations that are more resistant to antibiotics.
MRSA can spread among people during skin-to-skin contact and through shared objects such as towels, razors and doorknobs.
Curtis Williams, 21, spent two days fighting MRSA in an intensive care unit at Providence Everett Medical Center earlier this year.
The Mill Creek man said he got the infection after getting a big tattoo on his right shoulder in June. He didn’t cover the open wounds on the shoulder, which soon got sore and tender. Pimple-like bumps started popping up and quickly spread to his right ankle.
“If I had waited another day, it would’ve spread all over,” Williams said, adding that he’s doing fine now.
Scientists have said that MRSA infections mainly spread through hospitals and nursing homes. But the new study indicates that more and more infections are occurring in the community.
The best way to prevent MRSA infections is to stick to common hygiene practices, including frequent, thorough hand washing and by keeping cuts clean and covered.
“The best way to protect yourself is to always wash your hands, especially after being in public areas,” said Ruth Sharrett, a nurse at Stevens Hospital in Edmonds. “Anytime you touch things out in public such as door handles or cash machine buttons, you are at risk.”
Stevens Hospital puts all MRSA patients in isolation in a private room, Sharrett said. Anyone entering the room has to wear a gown and gloves.
The Everett Clinic practices a similar procedure, and staff sterilizes tools and equipment completely. To date, no clinic workers have been infected with MRSA, Tu said.
Some European countries have required hospitals to screen and isolate MRSA patients to stop the bug from spreading.
Debate on MRSA tracking is national.
In Washington, the Legislature passed a hospital-reporting law earlier this year; the measure doesn’t target MRSA, but includes it, said Donn Moyer, state Department of Health spokesman.
Tracking may just confirm what local doctors already know.
“We know it’s here. We know it has rapidly increased,” Tu said.
Tracking MRSA cases means taking away money from tracking other reportable diseases, said Goldbaum, of the Snohomish Health District. But prevention can be easier and more efficient to reduce the number of infections.
Meanwhile, doctors and medical officials are trying to spread a simple message: Wash your hands. Ask others to wash their hands.
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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