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Forum Name: Pediatric Topics

Question: MRSA Question

terrilh - Sat Dec 16, 2006 4:42 am

My grandmother just passed away, she had with MRSA in her lungs. We have her funeral in a couple of days, but I am concerned bringing my infant and toddler around the family members that had visited my grandma while she was in isolation. They did wear gowns and masks and washed their hands but I know that MRSA is nothing to mess with, should I be concerned?

Dr. Chan Lowe - Sat Dec 16, 2006 5:45 am

I'm sorry to hear of your loss. MRSA is a type of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria that has become resistant to methycillin. In doing so, it has also become slightly more prone to causing skin infections and a few other infections. Other than this, it really is just a common staph bacteria. In my area, about 50% of staph is MRSA. The prevalence rate varies from place to place, but MRSA is becoming much more common than it used to be. About a third of people will be colonized with staph aureus (I. e. it grows normally on the skin and in the nose most commonly). Of those, some have MRSA. There really is no special safety precautions that need to be taken and it is safe for your children to be around your family members. Occasionally, if a person seems to be getting recurrent skin infections from MRSA one can attempt to irradicate the MRSA from the skin using some skin washes and nasal Antibiotics. For most people colonized with MRSA it is not a problem. Hope this helps.

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