Tag Archives: MRSA

Straight, No Chaser: Hygiene and Illness

Health Prevention, General Health and Wellness, , , , , , , , ,

sneeze_in_arm

There are things you know, there are things you know but don’t really know, and there are still other things that you think you know that you don’t know at all. When it comes to colds and influenza (both or which are simple to understand, prevent and treat), all of the above apply.
Are you sickly or do you get colds more frequently than others? Respectfully, a big part of that is because you have habits that put you at risk. Common things happen commonly.

germs-on-hands

Of course this is not an actual photo, but it’s a good depiction of what’s happening. Simply put, most of the day, your hands are pretty disgusting. You handle money that’s been handed hundreds if not thousands of times and never cleaned. You grab handles and door knobs all day long. You cough and sneeze throughout the day, spewing germs into the air to be inhaled by others. And you spend time in the restroom. Your unclean hands contribute to many ailments, including colds, influenza, conjunctivitis (pink eye) and gastroenteritis (vomiting and diarrhea) and skin infections.
The important points are simple things you can do to lower your risk for infections. First, you have to stop assuming you know more than you do about basic hygiene and allow yourself to start practicing better habits. For example …

  • When you sneeze, do you sneeze into your hands or into the air around you? Please learn the habit covering your mouth and nose when you sneeze or cough by sneezing/coughing into your elbow and not your hands.
  • How often do you wash your hands? You must wash every time you begin to cook, before you eat, after you use the rest room, before you change a diaper and before you apply any topical medicine.
  • Have you ever noticed how much you keep your hands on parts of you that can become infected by doing so? Keep your hands out of your eyes, mouth and nose, and stop picking at your skin!

handwashing2

Yes, you wash your hands, but do you do so effectively and when you need to? Hand washing must be the easiest and most effective ways to prevent disease. Let’s start with this: from now on, whatever you do to clean your hands, do it for twenty seconds. Of course, antimicrobial soap and water are what we all learned to do way back when. It works! If that’s not available, use hand sanitizers or disposable hand wipes. It that’s not available, just rinse your hands! Be sure to rub your hands vigorously during the process as if you’re trying to get someone off of your hands, because you are!

sneeze

Feel free to ask your SMA expert consultant any questions you may have on this topic.
Order your copy of Dr. Sterling’s new book Behind The Curtain: A Peek at Life from within the ER at jeffreysterlingbooks.com, iTunes, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and wherever books are sold.
Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) and 844-SMA-TALK offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress, like us on Facebook @ SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and follow us on Twitter at @asksterlingmd.
Copyright © 2016 · Sterling Initiatives, LLC · Powered by WordPress

Straight, No Chaser: MRSA, the Big, Bad Staph Infection

Infectious Disease, Skin/Dermatology, , , , , , , , , , ,

MRSA
One of the things that’s changed a lot from when I first started practicing medicine is people show up every day to the emergency room for mosquito and spider bites.  The local news has done a number on you, as now everyone is afraid of MRSA.
Methicillin-resistant Staph Aureus (MRSA) is a bacterial infection that’s resistant to the penicillin family of drugs that we used for decades to treat many infections. Staph Aureus itself is a bacteria akin to flipping a light switch.  Normally, it resides within us (approximately 30% of us have it in our nostrils but only 2% of us carry the MRSA variety), not causing any problems, but it is also the source of many dangerous and life-threatening illnesses if it enters your bloodstream.
Over the last 50 years of treating Staph infections, resistance to many different antibiotics has occurred, meaning that when a serious infection occurs, it’s potentially very harmful.  The emphasis there should be on potentially.  Most MRSA infections are community-acquired skin infections that resemble a spider or other insect bite but are still mild and are treatable with different antibiotics than historically used.  Regular Staph and MRSA infections are even more likely to occur in those institutionalized (i.e. in hospitals, nursing homes, etc.) and have tubes and wounds.  Consider and discuss the risk with your physician when you see someone on a breathing device, a urinary catheter, needing gauze for surgical wounds or on feeding tubes.  Amazingly, MRSA causes approximately 60% of hospital-acquired Staph infections now.
My primary goal today is to inform you of what you need to know to prevent obtaining these infections and when to be especially diligent in seeking treatment.  It’s really a simple task of maintaining hygiene.  Just prevent that ‘light-switch’ from flipping to the on position and most times you’ll be ok.
1.  Staph is everywhere.  You can best protect yourself by simply practicing good hygiene.  Wash your hands early and often.
2. MRSA is spread by contact. Don’t be so quick to feel and squeeze on someone’s (or your own) boil.  Wash your hands before and after such contact.  Don’t share towels or razors.
3.  Keep any cuts, scratches, nicks or scrapes covered until healed.
If you do see or develop signs of a skin infection (redness, warmth, tenderness, pain and possibly discharge from the wound site), it’s worth contacting your physician to see if s/he’d like to start antibiotics or drain a possible abscess.
So… don’t be afraid, be smart.  Prevention is key.
Hand_Washing_MRSA
Feel free to ask any questions you may have on this topic.
Order your copy of Dr. Sterling’s new book Behind The Curtain: A Peek at Life from within the ER at jeffreysterlingbooks.com, iTunes, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and wherever books are sold.
Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) and 844-SMA-TALK offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress, like us on Facebook @ SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and follow us on Twitter at @asksterlingmd.
Copyright © 2016 · Sterling Initiatives, LLC · Powered by WordPress

Straight, No Chaser: Hygiene and Illness

General Health and Wellness, Health Prevention, , , , , , , ,

sneeze_in_arm

There are things you know, there are things you know but don’t really know, and there are still other things that you think you know that you don’t know at all. When it comes to colds and influenza (both or which are simple to understand, prevent and treat), all of the above apply.
Are you sickly or do you get colds more frequently than others? Respectfully, a big part of that is because you have habits that put you at risk. Common things happen commonly.

germs-on-hands

Of course this is not an actual photo, but it’s a good depiction of what’s happening. Simply put, most of the day, your hands are pretty disgusting. You handle money that’s been handed hundreds if not thousands of times and never cleaned. You grab handles and door knobs all day long. You cough and sneeze throughout the day, spewing germs into the air to be inhaled by others. And you spend time in the restroom. Your unclean hands contribute to many ailments, including colds, influenza, conjunctivitis (pink eye) and gastroenteritis (vomiting and diarrhea) and skin infections.
The important points are simple things you can do to lower your risk for infections. First, you have to stop assuming you know more than you do about basic hygiene and allow yourself to start practicing better habits. For example …

  • When you sneeze, do you sneeze into your hands or into the air around you? Please learn the habit covering your mouth and nose when you sneeze or cough by sneezing/coughing into your elbow and not your hands.
  • How often do you wash your hands? You must wash every time you begin to cook, before you eat, after you use the rest room, before you change a diaper and before you apply any topical medicine.
  • Have you ever noticed how much you keep your hands on parts of you that can become infected by doing so? Keep your hands out of your eyes, mouth and nose, and stop picking at your skin!

handwashing2

Yes, you wash your hands, but do you do so effectively and when you need to? Hand washing must be the easiest and most effective ways to prevent disease. Let’s start with this: from now on, whatever you do to clean your hands, do it for twenty seconds. Of course, antimicrobial soap and water are what we all learned to do way back when. It works! If that’s not available, use hand sanitizers or disposable hand wipes. It that’s not available, just rinse your hands! Be sure to rub your hands vigorously during the process as if you’re trying to get someone off of your hands, because you are!

sneeze

Feel free to contact your SMA expert consultant with any questions you have on this topic.
Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what  http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress, Facebook @ SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and Twitter at @asksterlingmd.
Copyright © 2014 · Sterling Initiatives, LLC · Powered by WordPress

Straight, No Chaser: MRSA, the Big, Bad Staph Infection

Skin/Dermatology, Infectious Disease, , , , , ,

MRSA
One of the things that’s changed a lot from when I first started practicing medicine is people show up every day to the emergency room for mosquito and spider bites.  The local news has done a number on you, as now everyone is afraid of MRSA.
Methicillin-resistant Staph Aureus (MRSA) is a bacterial infection that’s resistant to the penicillin family of drugs that we used for decades to treat many infections. Staph Aureus itself is a bacteria akin to flipping a light switch.  Normally, it resides within us (approximately 30% of us have it in our nostrils but only 2% of us carry the MRSA variety), not causing any problems, but it is also the source of many dangerous and life-threatening illnesses if it enters your bloodstream.
Over the last 50 years of treating Staph infections, resistance to many different antibiotics has occurred, meaning that when a serious infection occurs, it’s potentially very harmful.  The emphasis there should be on potentially.  Most MRSA infections are community-acquired skin infections that resemble a spider or other insect bite but are still mild and are treatable with different antibiotics than historically used.  Regular Staph and MRSA infections are even more likely to occur in those institutionalized (i.e. in hospitals, nursing homes, etc.) and have tubes and wounds.  Consider and discuss the risk with your physician when you see someone on a breathing device, a urinary catheter, needing gauze for surgical wounds or on feeding tubes.  Amazingly, MRSA causes approximately 60% of hospital-acquired Staph infections now.
My primary goal today is to inform you of what you need to know to prevent obtaining these infections and when to be especially diligent in seeking treatment.  It’s really a simple task of maintaining hygiene.  Just prevent that ‘light-switch’ from flipping to the on position and most times you’ll be ok.
1.  Staph is everywhere.  You can best protect yourself by simply practicing good hygiene.  Wash your hands early and often.
2. MRSA is spread by contact. Don’t be so quick to feel and squeeze on someone’s (or your own) boil.  Wash your hands before and after such contact.  Don’t share towels or razors.
3.  Keep any cuts, scratches, nicks or scrapes covered until healed.
If you do see or develop signs of a skin infection (redness, warmth, tenderness, pain and possibly discharge from the wound site), it’s worth contacting your physician to see if s/he’d like to start antibiotics or drain a possible abscess.
So… don’t be afraid, be smart.  Prevention is key.
Hand_Washing_MRSA
Copyright © 2013 · Sterling Initiatives, LLC · Powered by WordPress