Silent MRSA Carriers Have Twice the Mortality Rate
with Guest: Dr. Arch Mainous, Ph.D.
2% of the US population has MRSA at any given time. That's a large portion of the population. MRSA - or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus - is rampant in hospitals, nursing homes, gyms, prisons and anywhere there is a concentration of people with open wounds and compromised immune systems. My bet is everyone knows someone who has it. In the elderly and infants it can be deadly. When it gets into the bloodstream it travels to every organ in the body. As the name implies, it's antibiotic resistant so depending on how bad the infection is difficult to get rid of. But over time you can get rid of it.
An emerging problem however is people who carry the bacteria and don't know it. If you don't develop symptoms and the infection you my never know you have it. And that will put you at greater risk of premature death.
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Show Notes:
Silent MRSA Carriers Have Twice the Mortality Rate
[6:22] Death rates of MRSA.
- 6 million cases of antibiotic resistant infections/year.
- 36,000 deaths/year.
[9:30] The correlation between antibiotic use and MRSA.
[10:30] Antimicrobials and MRSA.
[16:17] Symptoms and signs of MRSA.
- Commonly mistaken for a spider bite.
[22:15] How was silent MRSA discovered?
[24:15] 36% of those with MRSA in the national index died within the next 11 years.
- Age 40-85.
- Double the rate in silent MRSA colonization vs not.
[25:20] The gap in knowledge of how to treat those that are colonized.
- Those that were not decolonized were 30% more likely to get infection.
- Chlorohexidine is the therapeutic treatment for colonization.
- Mupirasan for the nose.
[31:52] Colonized individuals can infect others.
[32:50] The body can eventually decolonize.
- Those that are previously colonized have a higher chance of being recolonized.
[36:20] Does sunlight play a role?
[39:20] What can we do when bacteria adapts to vancamycin?
- Find a method to deprive the bacteria of iron.
[48:45] LL-37.
[49:50] Are there any long lasting effects on those that are colonized or infected?
[51:35] What is the take away from this study?
[54:30] Insulin resistant people are more at risk.
