[New2FL]

Its all over the news this morning. Are we at the doorsteps of Armagedon, or what? Man, Florida has it bad. High cost of housing,Taxes, Hurricanes, crime, illegal inmigrants and now a "super bug" I guess California has it worst.

[tallrick]

MRSA is nothing new, but as the population of Miami has exploded, so has the instance of infections. People bring in germs from all over the world now. Staph, meningitis, influenza, AIDS, you name it. Anytime you allow tons of immigrants to invade an area, you will see this. Add in the amount of people who travel through Miami and it only gets worse. Oh and as mentioned before, the tropical climate here is prefect for the spread of disease. Having several people sharing rental apartments is not a good thing either.

[macguy]

Originally Posted by New2FL

Its all over the news this morning. Are we at the doorsteps of Armagedon, or what? Man, Florida has it bad. High cost of housing,Taxes, Hurricanes, crime, illegal inmigrants and now a "super bug" I guess California has it worst.

You have to read a little about it first.
My wife told me about this a long time ago. They hand out antibiotics like they are candy and created the problem. It needs to be discussed but the media is blowing it up a little. One man was fired from his job yesterday because he said he once had years ago. People are being sent into a panic.

MRSA infection - MayoClinic.com

[Magnulus]

Superbugs are nothing new. For a brief period in time in the late 20th century, we just thought we had them beat.

Just an example: Every year a little over a dozen people in the US die from tetanus. Florida's soil is a great breeding ground for it. Mortality rates are 25 percent, and the bacteria that causes it lives almost everywhere that is humid and comes in contact with soil in some way. You can get tetanus even from simple things like shaving. We do have booster shots of vaccine but most people are underprotected.

Also, staph in general is pretty bad. Lots and lots of people die from staph infections, often related to diabetes or multiple organ failure. Hospitals are loaded with staph germs from the sick and dying people that inhabit them.

[121804]

It is a problem, but as stated above, the media, as they usually do, is really making it seem as if it is the Bubonic Plague.

There are some things to look at : oversanitizing, overuse of anitbiotics & unclean areas.

I remember a specific school year where all the students were required to bring in a bottle of hand sanitizer. Most wanted to keep the bottles in their desks or lockers & used the stuff every class period or several times during class. Not b/c of keeping their hands clean, but b/c it was something to do & they liked the tingly feeling
That being said, items such as hand sanitizers & anitbacterial soaps that are used in excess (schools, day care centers) are starting to show signs of not letting children be able to fight off the most basic germs. Some germs are actually good to naturally fight off.

There is also very heavy talk in the pediatric world of how overimmunized kids are today. There is some very potent research coming out that young children may get too many shots & prescribed too many antibiotics. I've heard for years that giving an antibiotic to your child every time they have an ear infection actually may be worse than letting the infection work its course. I am a parent & know what a baby goes through with an ear infection, so that can be a tough call.

All these things start to add up & hence when a new bug comes along, one's body is so use to santizers & antibiotics that it cannot handle fighting a new bug off without some sort of gel or drug.

Then there are just situations where things are "dirty"; locker rooms, desks, stair rails. Hospitals are notorious for the spread of staph.

None of what the news is reporting is necessarily new. Staph has been around for a long time & it has always been a serious infection. Now, all of a sudden, every teenager in America has staph infections.

The moral of the story is too wash your hands in moderation & at sensible times & to not use antibacterials in excess. Children should also not be prescribed an antibiotic every time they sneeze.

Our bodies have to learn how & be able to naturally fight off basic germs.

[daniellefort]

My daughter has MRSA in her inner ear. Don't know how she got it but i suspect it's from the lake across the street as we used to jet ski a lot out there and many people were always seen swimming on the park side there. After about 4 years of doing that, the city finally put up another awareness sign that the water is not safe to be swimming in because it used to be where the city used to dump it's septic waste years and years ago and it's still could be in the muck deep below. The city claimed everytime they put up signs for no swimming that they were torn down. Now my daughter has to take antibiotic ear drops and a nasal cream every single day just to keep it under control and contained to those areas. If she goes 4 or 5 days without the ear drops, her fever spikes up to 104 in a matter of hours. It's not as deadly as the other outbreaks since it's on the outside of inner ear but still, it's serious enough and could spread internally if not taken care of. It sucks. She's also blind so she really relies on her hearing and sometimes the ear drops interfere with her hearing ability.

[Sunandsand]

I happen to have a MS degree in Microbiology....haven't used it in years, had to find a way to make money! Several posters have explained it rather well.

Anytime you use an antibiotic, microbes try to adapt so that they can survive. Eventually there will be resistant survivors and these will become the new dominant strain....obviously the non-resistant microbes die off, leaving only the resistant ones.

As others have said, scientists have been warning about this for 20 years. The medical community over medicates and perscribes antibiotics or eveything from the time people are infants.

[DavidGale]

Those infections are very serious. I had an infection 2 years ago, the recovery process took me about 1.5 years... Those germs almost killed me, no antibiotic was helping. Thank God I was in one of the best hospitals in germany!

[whippersnapper]

I just got diagnosed as having MRSA and all they gave me was more antibiotics. The PA didn't even talk to me about it, just handed me a presciption, told me the test results, and walked away. Ugh.

[DavidGale]

What the hell? Hope you get rid of MRSA pretty soon. Just don't get sick or an infection or whatever. 2 years ago my stomach perforated, these germs had a wonderful place to stay in my body!