Post by SpyderLady on Nov 10, 2007 8:51:34 GMT -6
The best defense against infections
They warned you. We warned you.
"The killer germs are coming — and it’s all your fault," The Press said in a June 1997 editorial. We weren’t particularly prescient. We were just noting what medical authorities were saying at the time 10 years ago — that the indiscriminate use of antibiotics would lead to the emergence of more virulent forms of bacteria that would have major implications for human health.
Well, with the death of a 17-year-old Virginia boy last week attributed to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, or MRSA, and the publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association of a study indicating an "astounding" rate of antibiotic-resistant staph infections, the nation is now in a full-fledged frenzy.
Additional cases are being reported in the media daily — cases that never would have been newsworthy before the current panic. Schools are being scrubbed with bleach, and people are rushing out to buy antibacterial hand cleaners.
What’s happened is that the antibiotic-resistant strains have moved outside their traditional setting in health-care institutions and into the community. Gyms, locker rooms, schools and similar places now account for 14 percent of new antibiotic-resistant infections, according to the JAMA article.
Your best defense? Frequent handwashing with soap and water, keeping cuts and scrapes clean and covered — and a better understanding of antibiotics.
They warned you. We warned you.
"The killer germs are coming — and it’s all your fault," The Press said in a June 1997 editorial. We weren’t particularly prescient. We were just noting what medical authorities were saying at the time 10 years ago — that the indiscriminate use of antibiotics would lead to the emergence of more virulent forms of bacteria that would have major implications for human health.
Well, with the death of a 17-year-old Virginia boy last week attributed to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, or MRSA, and the publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association of a study indicating an "astounding" rate of antibiotic-resistant staph infections, the nation is now in a full-fledged frenzy.
Additional cases are being reported in the media daily — cases that never would have been newsworthy before the current panic. Schools are being scrubbed with bleach, and people are rushing out to buy antibacterial hand cleaners.
What’s happened is that the antibiotic-resistant strains have moved outside their traditional setting in health-care institutions and into the community. Gyms, locker rooms, schools and similar places now account for 14 percent of new antibiotic-resistant infections, according to the JAMA article.
Your best defense? Frequent handwashing with soap and water, keeping cuts and scrapes clean and covered — and a better understanding of antibiotics.