Can anyone give me information on MRSA?  My daughter was just diagnosed with it and I'm so scared of even taking her outside.  I need some help please....

Thanks

Jamie 

Staph is a normal bacteria found on the skin and various other places of the body of some people. The kind of infection your daughter has is due to a certain antibiotic resistant strain of this bacteria. It is not resistant to all antibiotics, just a lot of them. The bacteria enters the body through a wound in the skin. If you have any open cuts or wounds, be very careful when caring for her infected wound. Wear gloves when changing bandages and wash your hands all the time! She needs to be washing her hands all the time too! It is speculated that this so called super bug is the result of over use of antibacterial soaps and misuse of antibiotics, like people not finishing them all and then the bug becomes resistant.  What gets your hands clean when you wash them is the friction from rubbing them, not the bacteria killers in the soap. Trust me, we did an experiment in my microbiology class, it's true. Just make sure that you thouroughly clean your house, all surfaces need cleaned with a heavy disinfectant to prevent reinfection from occuring and make sure to practice proper hand hygiene and if she got it from a classroom, make sure they are having the school professionally cleaned as well. As for taking her outside, are you worried she will infect others or are you worried someone will infect her? She is the one who could potentially infect others at the moment. Just be careful of cuts or wounds in the skin coming in to contact with her infected parts and things should be ok, as long as she's being treated. I hope I helped, good luck and don't worry, the media has hyped this up entirely too much and not told people the simplest way to fight it is good hand hygiene and cleaning of surfaces that come into contact with other people's bodies. Keep us posted!

I'm scared that she will infect other people including my other daughter.  The doctor said a lot of people have it already but when I look online it says how dangerous it is and how it killed more people then people with AIDS.  I'm so paranoid that she is going to die this winter because I read that if you have the flu and MRSA it can kill you.  I think that if that many people had it, I would have heard about it before this.

Jamie 

Also, I wondered where I could get disinfectant for it?  I read that Clorox makes a good one but it's only for hospitals?  I've looked for other ones but haven't had any luck. 

I know you're scared right now, but calm down. I told you, the media hype is out of control. As long as she is being treated things should be just fine. The majority of cleaners are disinfectants and are appropriate to clean the surfaces of your home. Lysol can also be used, once you give everything a good scrubing, for things like doorknobs and such. Did your daughter have a wound or is it a respiratory issue? A friend of mine's baby had it in a wound on his groin, it got infected and he developed MRSA. He did have a short 2 day stay in the hospital and the type of MRSA that he had was a respiratory kind and the entire family had to do antipiotic nose swabs. Don't be scared that she'll die! The MRSA should be gone by winter and even if it's not, the stats you read about AIDS and such are a little out there. If you can't seem to put your mind at ease, ask your Dr all the questions you have and keep asking until you are satisfied. If he/she doesn't answer them all, find a new Dr. You are the consumer and have the power and right to know! Keep me posted.

Just to add, the baby of the friend is just fine now and he did not infect anyone else in the family, they have 4 other children. And I meant to say antibiotic nose swabs, not antipiotic.

 I don't know how she got it I noticed a boil on her hip and it got bigger so I called the doctor and they sent us right over to the emergency room which freaked me out.  They said she could have gotten it from anyone or it could have been mosquito bite that she scratched while playing outside and with dirt on her hands it probably became infected.  It's almost gone now but I'm so scared that it will come back.  I'll let you know if anything else happens.  Thanks for all your information, it has really helped calm my nerves...