Try Washing Your Hands

[Gary Sisco]

Schools in Several States Report Staph Infections, and Deaths Raise the Alarm
Bill Crandall for The New York Times
The nurse, Jenny Jones, and the principal, William Gregory, at a Maryland high school where there were staph infections.


By IAN URBINA
Published: October 19, 2007
SANDY SPRING, Md., Oct. 18 — When the football players here at Sherwood High School were not getting the message about washing their uniforms and using only their own jerseys, the school nurse paid a surprise visit to the locker room. She brought along a baseball bat.

“Don’t make me use this,” the nurse, Jenny Jones, said, pointing out that seven players on the team had already contracted a deadly drug-resistant strain of bacteria this year. “Start washing your hands,” she said. “I mean it.”

School officials around the country have been scrambling this week to scrub locker rooms, reassure parents and impress upon students the importance of good hygiene. The heightened alarm comes in response to a federal report indicating that the bacteria, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, are responsible for more deaths in the United States each year than AIDS.

MRSA (pronounced MEER-suh) is a strain of staph bacteria that does not respond to penicillin or related antibiotics, though it can be treated with other drugs. The infection can be spread by sharing items, like a towel or a piece of sports equipment that has been used by an infected person, or through skin-to-skin contact with an open wound.

On Wednesday and Thursday, scores of schools were closed and events were canceled in Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia as cleaning crews disinfected buses, lockers and classrooms. More closings are planned on Friday.

School officials in Mississippi, New Hampshire and Virginia reported student deaths within the past two weeks from the bacteria, while officials in at least four other states reported cases of students being infected.

The federal report, written by doctors at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that nearly 19,000 people had died in the United States in 2005 after an invasive MRSA infection. The study also suggested that such infections might be twice as common as previously thought.

This week, health officials began reporting a growing number of cases in schools, gyms and day care centers, and not just in nursing homes and hospitals, as has often been the case in the past.

Nicole Coffin, a spokeswoman at the centers, said that while the results of the study are striking, it is important to realize that about 85 percent of the infections reported from the bacteria were in health care settings.

“MRSA in the community is typically a mild skin infection that rarely becomes life-threatening,” she said, adding that even when it does become more severe, the death rates for this type of infection are low.

Here in Sandy Spring, students seem to be getting the message that they need to take extra care.

“I think they’re taking it seriously now,” William Gregory, the principal at Sherwood High School, said of members of the football team. “She is pretty emphatic,” he said, pointing to Ms. Jones. “But the students are also seeing the reports of deaths, and that has reminded them.”

He added that as he visits locker rooms now, the tell-tale stench is gone from athletes’ uniforms, and students are calling him and the nurse diligently when cuts do not seem to be healing.

Elsewhere in the state, more than two dozen staph infections have been reported by four Anne Arundel County high schools over the past three weeks. County officials sent letters to parents explaining that crews have been scrubbing schools with hospital-grade disinfectant.

Ashton Bonds was one of the rare cases of a death from MRSA contracted outside a health care facility. Mr. Bonds, a 17-year-old football player from Staunton River High School in Moneta, Va., died Monday from the bacteria.

“He put up a fight,” said Veronica Bonds, Ashton’s mother. “He was strong. I just think he was just tired, too.”

In response to the death, students throughout the county protested what they called unsanitary conditions in their school buildings.

Although school officials have observed that the bacteria mostly affect student athletes, cases have been reported in children of elementary school age as well.

“I worry about her getting sick anyway, but I don’t want her to catch something that will make her very, very ill,” said Kelli Stammen about her 2-year-old daughter, who attends city-sponsored recreation and library classes in Grove City, Ohio, where a 17-year-old high school student was put in intensive care unit in September with a staph infection.

The C.D.C. study found that 27 percent of all invasive MRSA infections originated in hospitals, while 58 percent began outside of a hospital but in patients with some recent exposure to the health care system.

The remaining 15 percent of invasive MRSA cases originated in the community without any apparent health care risk factor.

*******************

Bronwyn's had an open wound for a long time that requires serious nursing care. Her doctor and others have been trying to get her to go to a hospital -- one of the easiest places there is to contract MRSA. No, thanks. At home, she can control if people wash their hands or not.

When my father had a lung removed, the doctor said the day after his surgery that he'd be going home the next day. I asked the doctor, Don't you think that's a little soon? I mean, taking out a lung is traumatic, let's face it. The doctor told me point blank that the worst place he could be was in a hospital, for this bacterial reason.

Between the not washing of the hands and the doctors handing out antibiotics to millions of people with colds -- which are caused by viruses, not bacteria, and so the antibiotics do nothing but breed resistance bacteria -- they're creating a real plague for us.

Sometimes living today it seems like medieval times with high technology.

[Enforcer]

So I'm in Subway one day and I'm standing in line to order a sub. There are two guys behind the counter, working assembly line style. One guy's getting the bread and putting the meat and cheese on, the other guy puts the veggies and dressing/condiments on. They're both wearing plastic gloves while they make the subs. At some point, one of the guys has to take a quick break. Unfortunately, I heard him whisper this to his co-worker: "I'll be right back. I gotta take a shit."

So now there's one guy behind the counter making the subs by himself for a couple of minutes. But right as it's time to make my sub, the other guy comes back from the bathroom. His plastic gloves are STILL ON. The dispenser for the new bags was right in front of me, and I know he didn't reach to put on a new pair. So I'm about to say something when the phone rings and he answers. The guy with (presumably) clean gloves makes my sub and I leave.

I love that they wear gloves. I think anyone working in food prep probably should. The things is, lots of them answer the phone and take money from customers without ever changing gloves. That pretty much defeats the purpose of them. But this was a step beyond all that. There's a tiny chance that this guy removed the gloves before wiping his ass. But way too small a chance for me.

[Gary Sisco]

Bronwyn won't let her aids get away with that shit. She tells them. Ok, wash your hands again. "But I'm wearing gloves." Too bad. Take them off, wash your hands again, put clean gloves on.

Like she's supposed to die of MRSA rather than inconvenience some medieval American.

[Gary Sisco]

They should change the gloves anyway. Bacteria can live on gloves. Duh?

[Nim Chimpsky]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

MRSA (pronounced MEER-suh)

Only if you're trying to fool patients who are still coming round from the anesthetic. Otherwise it's EM-AR-ES-AY, which, incidentally, along with C-diff, is now given away as a free gift in British hospitals.

[groover]

Originally Posted by Larry Nagel

I love that they wear gloves. I think anyone working in food prep probably should. The things is, lots of them answer the phone and take money from customers without ever changing gloves. That pretty much defeats the purpose of them. But this was a step beyond all that. There's a tiny chance that this guy removed the gloves before wiping his ass. But way too small a chance for me.

They must think the gloves are to keep your mayonnaise from touching their skin, but not to keep their shit from touching your food.

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by Larry Nagel

So I'm in Subway one day

I'm appalled.

[Gary Sisco]

Originally Posted by Nim Chimpsky

Only if you're trying to fool patients who are still coming round from the anesthetic. Otherwise it's EM-AR-ES-AY, which, incidentally, along with C-diff, is now given away as a free gift in British hospitals.

Didn't know that. It's been pronounced Mersa here every time I've heard it. We know a young quadriplegic girl has it, thanks to the failing of basic practices by an aid. Hell of a thing.

It's one of our worst fears, in this household. We have to trust far too many when I don't trust any.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by Pete C

I'm appalled.

Really?

And all this time I thought you were Pete.


Huh.


Who knew?

[Gary Sisco]

For chrissake just wash your hands!

U.S. health experts seek to calm schools over superbug
Fri Oct 19, 2007 4:03pm EDT
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The headlines are disturbing -- schools closing for disinfection, a 17-year-old dead from a drug-resistant "superbug." But health officials said on Friday it is no new emergency and the best way to deal with the bacteria is simply to wash your hands.

The bug causing most of the concern is Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA -- a version of an everyday bacteria that causes pimples, sinus infection and, in rare cases, meningitis and blood infections.

What is worrying about MRSA is that it resists commonly used antibiotics -- but not all drugs.

"Extreme measures to 'disinfect' an environment like a school really aren't what is going to be most important in controlling transmission of MRSA," Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, an epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a telephone interview.

The bug made headlines this week because of a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association that it caused 94,000 serious infections and nearly 19,000 deaths in 2005 -- most of them in hospitals.

Then 21 schools in Bedford County, Virginia, were closed after a 17-year-old student died of an MRSA infection. Charles Pyle, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education, said a thorough cleaning was being done.

Many school districts, including the one in Washington, D.C., contacted parents to reassure them that there had been no cases of MRSA at their schools.

The Senate even passed an amendment on Thursday requiring the Agency for Health Research Quality within the Department of Health and Human Services to use $5 million to identify and suppress the spread of MRSA.

"This is a dangerous and deadly germ which is spreading all over the country," said Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, the amendment's sponsor. "It is costing schools and communities thousands of dollars to clean up but the cost to human life and suffering is growing faster."

But CDC officials say there is no new emergency and nothing has changed.

"We understand why people are concerned. But we also want to emphasize that MRSA infections are common," said Srinivasan.

"MRSA is a common cause of skin infection. Almost all of these infections are readily treated by commonly available antibiotics and by draining the lesions."

He added: "It is not glamorous but it is very true -- hand hygiene is by far the best means to prevent the spread of all diseases."

Schools may also be prudent to disinfect surfaces in places like locker rooms or common showers that someone with a scrape or an open cut or boil may to touch, said Srinivasan.

"But contamination of the environment by MRSA has not been the predominant factor in transmission of MRSA. What we have found is that most of this transmission seems to occur from direct contact."

The CDC said it planned to place guidance for schools on its Web site, http://www.cdc.gov.


© Reuters 2006.

[patricia]

I've been in convenience stores in which the hot-dogs and other fast food is are on a grill which is right beside the cash register.
The same person who takes your money makes your hot dog, or whatever it is.
Although they put on plastic gloves, before they make your food, they don't wash their hands, nor do they throw away the gloves they wear, after each food maneuver, mostly leaving them on the counter by the grill. They have a huge box of lightweight, disposable gloves, but don't always use new ones each time they assemble some food item and hand it to the customer.

There are few things dirtier than money.
Whoever makes your food should never touch money as well, without washing their hands between the two actions.
I'm amazed that more kids don't get sick, just from eating food from convenience-store grills at lunchtime.

[clinthopson]

About the only fast food place I patronize is Togo's which makes some pretty good sandwiches. I've noticed that the preparers always wear gloves and never handle the money. It's not a drive-through and you see the food being prepared.

When you go through a drive-through, do you have any idea of what sanitary efforts the food preparers are making?

Beside that, most of what those places serve is evil crap.

[patricia]

Originally Posted by tippy

Maybe the hot dog that's been rotating for 12 hours needs the extracurricular schmutz to make it taste right.

You're probably right.

[Gary Sisco]

Handwashing more useful than drugs in virus control
Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:07am EST Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page | Recommend (1) [-] Text [+]
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powered by SphereHONG KONG (Reuters) - Physical barriers, such as regular handwashing and wearing masks, gloves and gowns, may be more effective than drugs to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses such as influenza and SARS, a study has found.

The findings, published in the British Medical Journal, came as Britain announced it was doubling its stockpile of antiviral medicines in preparation for any future flu pandemic.

Trawling through 51 studies, the researchers found that simple, low-cost physical measures should be given higher priority in national pandemic contingency plans.

"Mounting evidence suggests that the use of vaccines and antiviral drugs will be insufficient to interrupt the spread of influenza," they wrote in the report.

The 51 studies compared any intervention to prevent animal-to-human or human-to-human transmission of respiratory viruses, such as isolation, quarantine, social distancing, barriers, personal protection and hygiene, to doing nothing or to other types of intervention. They excluded vaccines and antiviral drugs.

They found that handwashing and wearing masks, gloves and gowns were effective individually in preventing the spread of respiratory viruses, and were even more effective when combined.

"This systematic review of available research does provide some important insights ... There is therefore a clear mandate to carry out further large trials to evaluate the best combinations," the international team of scientists wrote.

Another study, published in the Cochrane Library journal last month, found handwashing with just soap and water to be a simple and effective way to curb the spread of respiratory viruses, from everyday cold viruses to deadly pandemic strains.

Researchers have long warned that the world is due for another pandemic but they cannot say which strain will strike. The H5N1 avian flu virus that has killed more than 200 people globally since 2003 is considered a prime suspect.

(Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn; editing by Roger Crabb)

[jesus marion joseph]

Originally Posted by Larry Nagel

Unfortunately, I heard him whisper this to his co-worker: "I'll be right back. I gotta take a shit."

The other part of that conversation was "I just took one, and I had to wipe my ass with my glove 'cuz we're out of TP".

[Gentle Giant]

At my daughter's school, the custodians bleach all the door handles regularly. Still, as long as there's a shitload of people about, there's going to be a shitload of germs waiting to strike.

[Erik Lund]

Originally Posted by jesus marion joseph

The other part of that conversation was "I just took one, and I had to wipe my ass with my glove 'cuz we're out of TP".

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Or maybe the first guy was doing Act II. (ie 2nd poop of the day) and the clean guy was just grabbin' dirty veggies/meat anyway.


Come on! Where's your George-Carlin-immune-system people?! You eat that fecal matter and get back to me when your immune system is good and healthy!

[cookie]

Oh, man! This is one of my pet peeves. I carry around hand sanitizer now. I try not to grip public door knobs/handles with my bare hands (use a sleeve or automatic door). I try to keep my own germs to myself by sneezing or coughing into my elbow rather than my hand. If I get sick, there's a good chance I'll lose money.

But you just can't get away from it sometimes. I was out listening to music the other night. I was seated at a table by myself and another patron came to sit by me. He's a nice gentleman---a regular who knows the music and loves songs---so I didn't mind that he came to sit with me (he doesn't talk during the music, which I also dig about him). But when I asked him how he had been, he said, "Oh, okay. Just trying to shake this damn cold!" Every little cough after that made me nervous. I was sitting backed up in a corner and would have had to climb over him to leave, so I sat tight (besides, he's a nice cat and I didn't want to offend him over my germ paranoia). But when the set was over, I smiled, excused myself, and immediately went to the washroom and washed my hands like a surgeon!

[Scott Dolan]

Sounds like you're a grade A germaphobe.

[Jazzzoline]

I think wearing gloves is a cause of spreading bacterias. People who wear them don’t know if they have shit on their hands, they don’t feel it. If you don’t have gloves, you know it!

My father in law deceased last week. He first was brought to the hospital for a heart attack. He was old (83) and not healthy, has always been sick all his life, a few cancers, one kidney left.
They scratched arteries then hoped he would get better. He got better then caught that bacteria (it’s called SRAM here), followed by fights over what hospital he could have caught it from.
Nurses and visitors had to wear an overall and gloves. My mother in law often forgot about the “rules” though. He got another heart intervention (scratched other arteries) after he failed to walk by himself and I’m not telling about the doctors fights about his chances to survive. Then he didn’t get better at all. Lunges and kidney and bacteria(?) didn’t work well and he finally died.

Now I thought: if any of us caught that bacteria, particularly my mother in law, she probably spread it to a few of the people who came and shook hands with her.

How does one know if they caught it? Can a dog get it? Their dog is scratching and biting itself all the time.

[Chaz Longue]

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

At my daughter's school, the custodians bleach all the door handles regularly. Still, as long as there's a shitload of people about, there's going to be a shitload of germs waiting to strike.

Jayzizmothermaryandjoseph...........we had the "grandkids" over last night. I'm gonna bleach our handles too!

[Chaz Longue]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

Sounds like you're a grade A germaphobe.

Better a little neurotic than ill.

and btw - same to you and many of them.

[cookie]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

Sounds like you're a grade A germaphobe.

I have to be. It's not like an OCD thing---I don't think. It's just a practical necessity because I can't sing well when I'm sick. There are things you can do: Pete sent me that great CD of Nanette Natal singing while under the weather and she sounded great. She obviously knows the right way to "sing through" a headcold. A little sniffle doesn't hang me up. But once I sang while I was *really* sick and I ended up with a vocal injury that required vocal rest. It was a real drag so I'm more careful now. I still do get the occasional cold, but so far, thank goodness, they've been short and have fallen when there was little or no bread at stake.

[Doc Martin]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

Sounds like you're a grade A germaphobe.

That would be a Mysophobe

[Scott Dolan]

Thanks for the update, rollie. You'll note I didn't capitalize germaphobe. Or maybe not...

I see you're bringing all your imaginary friends out to play this week.

Good for you!

[Chaz Longue]

Since I became a neurotic handwasher, I seldom get colds anymore.
I used to get one like clockwork around Christmas. Not anymore...

[rollhead]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

Thanks for the update, rollie. You'll note I didn't capitalize germaphobe. Or maybe not...

I see you're bringing all your imaginary friends out to play this week.

Good for you!

Dolan, if I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, I am not Doc Martin.

I have had two imaginary friends on here:



and

[kedoane]

I am going to be sanitizing my workspace tomorrow since there is a bug going around my workplace this past week. It has affected a couple of my coworkers so far. I don't want to be sick.

[Chaz Longue]

Jayzus - That photo of shallow...I gotta go wash my hands again...