MRSA...Spooky Stuff!

S

shane justice

Joined
May 12, 2003
Messages
1,606
A Sports Illustrated article caught my attention recently...

It is about this staff infection nasty that is creeping around, "MRSA".
SI claims it is the next epidemic waiting to happen. Now in the sports community...next in the genral pop...This bugger is pretty nasty. It kills in a matter of days if not treated. Symptoms are easy to misdiagnose. Getting it looks to be as easy as contact with contaminated items.

Dang if it is possible to get this bug from a scrape or cut...I am in trouble....my hands could model for a Curad commercial.

Mostly I just wanted to throw out a heads-up to everybody to take
care and be safe.

I worry about letting a guy come into my shop and grind his knuckles on my grinder. He gets to use new belts or bring his own...and band aids are always available. So is a spray bottle with clorox...and some first aid stuff.

I have seen guys in shops zip off a bit of skin...step away from the grinder and have another guy jump in behind him and go right to grinding. And sure enough...zip off goes his knuckle...and in my book that ain't good.

Sorry if this thread is a downer...but fellas...I don't want to lose any brother smiths to HEP or STREP or Staff or Flesh Eating Cooties..so better we talk about what is acceptable shop practice now than at some poor guy's wake.

We can't ignore this type of stuff in the glamour of our profession ;)

Does anybody else have any ideas how to take care of this kind of stuff? Maybe there's a doc around to advise? Or EMT's....

Anybody want to throw in on this one?

Shane
 
Just take him out to the forge and heat up an iron rod and cauterize the wound.

In all seriousness I think if you pay attention to your body and use common sence you'll probably be alright. If someone looses skin on a belt, change it before someone else grinds.
 
Don't worry about MRSA too much, I am a lab tech and I am exposed to that and tons of other stuff that could kill you in a much worse way.
(hep B,C. HIV, FLU, Ect) I think the MRSA stuff is just hype, about 70% of all new staph infections are meth resistant. You can still kill the stuff with vancomycin. If your worried wipe your tables with Lysol, and wash your hands often. The bad problem with the staph bacteria is that it likes plastic, and such things so it can pretty much live on any surface. Just wash your hands, don't touch anyones open wounds, ect. I'm Not trying to preach, but the main reason that there are all these antibotic resistant bugs is people get antibotics when they don't need them, and don't finish them when they do get them. The worst thing That I've seen with MRSA is a wound that won't heal, I've not heard of it killing anyone. But I'm not a Doc. I'm sure its killled someone, Heck asprin kills 20,000 people a year. Notice I said wash your hands several times, this the best way to prevent flu, colds, infections. ect. Sorry so long winded, Medical stuff is never usually posted, something I actually know about.
 
the thing that you have to REALLY be careful of is..................


that car coming at you as you cross the street!!! :eek: :( :eek:
 
Let me get this straight.We grab 2000 degree steel,smash it with 200 pound power hammers,grind it on 2" belts moving at 5000FPS....and we have to worry about bugs?
Just kidding,Wash with soap,disinfect with chlorine,and forget about all those "anti-bacterial" wipes and soaps .Too many antibiotic products is part of the problem.Don't get paranoid about exposure to bacteria and viruses.You are exposed every day,all day long.Good health and nutrition are the best way to avoid things.
 
Hey guys...I appreciate all your ideas...good stuff....

My wife is a registered nurse. She keeps me up on this kinda stuff.

I understand MRSA is treatable...according to this article and what I read....symptoms like nausea and whatnot get missed for the flu.

What do the guys in the big shops like Busse, Buck, Benchmade etc do?

Them wipees are a good idea, since I ain't got running water in the shop to wash grubbies before I come into the house.

Not trying to seem like a wimppy handwashing fussy boy....just trying to keep up with safety in the shop. And maybe there are some guys out there who never heard of this stuff.

Shane
 
I think the place to stay away from if you want to avoid staph infections, is hospital operating rooms, both in and outpatient surgeries.
They've been breeding drug resistant bugs for generations, and it seems that those around here, and others I know that caught a bad staph infection got it in a hospital.:eek:;)

A friend in England had a simple surgery recently. She ended up with boil like sores, quite painful, from an infection picked up in the operating room, or one of the nurses changing dressings. :eek:
 
my girlfriend did her internship (she's a nurse, don't know waht they call the on the job training for nurses) at Johns Hopkins In Baltimore, Md and told me that the majority of people in her care there at the time had MRSA on their charts and that they all, for the most part, acquired it at the hospital.

She also told me that it is considered a contact contagion and patients were treated in similar fashion to those with TB. Unfortunately, she claims that many hospital patients acquire infections because of nurses who do not properly wash their hands and change gloves.
 
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