U.S. deaths from deadly staph 'superbug' may surpass AIDS deaths

[Horse with no Name]

Truly frightening. :scared:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/101707dnnatstaph.179095718.html

>>>>snip
CHICAGO – More than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly infections each year from a drug-resistant staph "superbug," the government reported Tuesday in its first overall estimate of invasive disease caused by the germ.

Deaths tied to these infections may exceed those caused by AIDS, said one public health expert commenting on the new study. The report shows just how far one form of the staph germ has spread beyond its traditional hospital setting.

The overall incidence rate was about 32 invasive infections per 100,000 people. That's an "astounding" figure, said an editorial in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, which published the study.

>>>snip
In recent years, the resistant germ has become more common in hospitals and it has been spreading through prisons, gyms and locker rooms, and in poor urban neighborhoods.

[RL3AO]

1. The new "super bird flu"...or is this one real?

[Horse with no Name]

2. Oh this one is real

unfortunately.

[TomInTib]

4. Goddamned right. It killed my Aunt.

Had concurrent struggles with Breast Cancer and non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Beat 'em, hands down.

So she goes back for one last procedure, one to remove the shunt.

Sent me an email saying she was actually not too bothered about the surgery because, "I've already beat the things that could kill me".

Yeah, right.

My Cousin (her Son) is one of the foremost thoraxic surgeons on the Planet.

And he tells me to not go near a hospital unless my life is in the balance.

Says the hospital will kill you, just as well.

[NewJeffCT]

24. I've been hearing about it for a while now - this article is almost 2 years old

I had tears in my eyes reading about the young boy in the article...

New, virulent staph infection sparks health fears
Friday, January 20, 2006

In April 2004, Simon Sparrow was a robust toddler, 17 months old and just learning to feed himself. Then he caught a cold.

He awoke with a cry at his family's Chicago home. His parents took him to the University of Chicago Children's Hospital. Emergency-room doctors X-rayed his chest and chalked up his symptoms to a virus and asthma. They let him go home at about 1 p.m. At 4:30 p.m., his mother called back and asked doctors to listen to his worsening breathing over the phone. Call 911, they said.

An ambulance whisked Simon back to the hospital where his condition rapidly deteriorated. Doctors scrambled to insert tubes and administer antibiotics and drugs to combat organ failure triggered by an overwhelming infection. Approaching midnight, he was taken off a regular ventilator in favor of a high-tech, heart-lung bypass system. Twelve hours later, he was dead.

<snip>

As Simon was taken into the intensive-care unit, after the administration of antibiotics and other drugs, his eyes were open and he looked around. Wasn't that a good sign, Ms. Macario asked? The doctors' expressions told her something was seriously wrong. "They seemed confused, scared, frantic and helpless themselves," she wrote in a later essay detailing the day's events.

Dr. Koogler doesn't contradict the mother's assessment. "This child was dying before our eyes," she says.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06020/641543.stm

[Cetacea]

25. That is disturbing, given the articles claims.

And the number of people already in this thread who have experience with this bug. Unlike Avian Flu and SPARS, is this one a mostly American disease which is NOT being exposed?

[Cetacea]

26. Another from two years ago.

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=8844


snip: This "re-equipping and re-emergence" of a clone that caused a pandemic 40-50 years ago could mean that community acquired MRSA will spread faster and be more widespread than previously expected, warns an international team of researchers who have been studying the bacteria.

First isolated in Australia and Canada in 1953, type 80/81 penicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria caused skin lesions, sepsis and pneumonia in children and young adults around the world. This pandemic of both hospital and community acquired infections waned throughout the 1960s as the antibiotic meticillin was used to treat these infections.

Now researchers have shown that one of the key clones of community acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) - infections picked up in public places which are resistant to treatment by powerful meticillin antibiotics - may have evolved from this earlier pandemic-causing strain.

[Cetacea]

48. And JAMA released results of new CDC study today.

"This is the first time that we've been able to measure the number of infections," said the study's lead author, Dr. R. Monina Klevens, an epidemiologist with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We were surprised that the rates were so high. It's a call to action."

The study, published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first on such a large scale to analyze the incidence of drug-resistant infections in the community at large, as well as in hospitals, where it has traditionally been studied.'Nationwide epidemic'
"This is way out of control," Farr said. "It's egregious. It's a nationwide epidemic."

Link: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-te.bacteria17oct17,0,2007609.story?coll=bal-artslife-travel

[Richardo]

7. Put me in the hospital this summer...

...for a 48-hour drip of vancomycin. I've been getting outbreaks for a year now - they started at random with no obvious source - I hadn't been to a hospital, locker room, or any of that. I'm just hyper-vigilant making sure I get antibiotics immediately.

[TZ]

39. I think the hundreds of people dead of avian flu

in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea might disagree with your "imaginary flu" theory. Bird flu exists and remains the biggest POTENTIAL threat to the world health, as the experts the World Health Organization has repeatedly said. Your argument is the same as those who claimed Mt. St.Helens was not a danger in 1980 because it hadn't erupted in a long time....

[Blashyrkh]

3. I draw your attention to the words "MAY" and "POTENTIALLY". Crisis over.

[Bluebear]

5. Sorry, this is a very dangerous development, nothing to be flip about. nt

[Blashyrkh]

9. That's what they said about SARS and Avian Flu.

[Bluebear]

10. 8,402 probable SARS cases and 772 deaths have been reported in 29 countries. Some hoax.

[Rex]

11. Exactly.

A superbug, resistant to all our current antibiotics. No worries, reaallly? None?

Outpace AIDS you say? Worried?

People ignore death at their own peril.

[Bluebear]

13. I suppose it's cool or suave to be so unaffected.

Me, I think drug-resistant bugs are something to be verrrrry concerned about.

[Rex]

14. Well if we base all our modern civilization on drugs, which we do

then it should be something to pay attention to. Just my 1/2 cents worth.

[Bluebear]

15. Years of people insisting on antibiotics for viral colds.

Doctors who wouldn't say no. Drug companies that were delighted even though the product did nothign to combat the viral illness. Here we are.

[seabeyond]

21. isnt that the truth. my kids were babies during the hieght of handing out antibiotics

i had never been sick and didnt use doctors or aware much of illness and what went on... but, it made no since for a perscription for a cold in my view. but often i would have doctors wanting to give them to me or kids and i would continually refuse. out of common sense. i go with body healing self first, then to medicine. not long after we start hearing about the problem of people being overly prescribed antibiotics. i was thrilled this concept had flashed in my mind prior to the info.

i am still wary and careful about the easy medicating me and mine

[loudsue]

34. That, and putting heavy-duty antibiotics in ALL the meat we were eating.

Just so that the chicken, pork & beef ranchers & farmers didn't have to be bothered with keeping their animals in a safe, healthy living environment.

Antibiotics in the meat/chicken we've been eating is a great part of why we have become so resistant to drugs.

Plus, I saw a special on the science channel in 2004 all about how the drug companies were not particularly interested in creating new antibiotics, and they weren't putting much money into research & development for new antibiotics. The viagara crowd was sooo willing to pay sooo much more for get-it-on drugs. And heart/cholesterol medication was an annuity that just kept on giving to the drug companies.

It's not about our health. It's about their profit.

[flashl]

67. Agree

Hospitals and doctors started this dialog over 10 years ago, the reason for the lack of big pharms interest then is the same as it is today, money.

[Blashyrkh]

69. Yes, but how many people DIDN'T die of SARS in that same period? That's why I'm not worried.

[Cetacea]

17. Unlike those, this one is being under-reported.

You should be concerned.

[Quantess]

47. Media cried wolf too many times, and now everyone is predictably underwhelmed at news of outbreaks,

So now the media is not making a big deal of this superbug.

[Cetacea]

50. Focused on "terra" alerts and diseases not affecting Americans

The CDC released the results of a two-year old study just today. The UK appears to be doing a good job of educating people and trying to contain it.
Researchers here are complaining about lack of funding.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-te.bacteria17oct17,0,2007609.story?coll=bal-artslife-travel

[TZ]

38. Then why did YESTERDAY A HS STUDENT IN VIRGINIA DIE...

from this? THis is a huge problem getting worse EVERYDAY...

[flashl]

6. MRSA and Correctional Health

MRSA and Correctional Health

What is MRSA?

MRSA is a kind of Staphylococcus aureus (“staph”) bacterium that is resistant to some antibiotics. It is resistant to a family of antibiotics related to penicillin that includes antibiotics called methicillin and oxacillin, but it is often resistant to many other antibiotics as well.

Many people think that MRSA is a “super bug” capable of causing unusually severe disease. However, any staph can cause severe disease. MRSA just needs to be identified and treated with different antibiotics, when antibiotic treatment is necessary.

For general information about staph and MRSA, please see About MRSA.

Is MRSA a problem in correctional facilities?
Not necessarily. Many people, including inmates and corrections officers, carry staph (including MRSA) in their nose or on their skin and do not know they are carrying it. They do not get skin infections. They do not have any signs or symptoms of illness.

However, there are some conditions that can lead to MRSA/staph infections in prisons and jails, and in other settings where people have close contact and in which skin damage (cuts, scratches, scrapes) can occur, like on sports teams.

[Cetacea]

18. This is different. It is affecting communities outside of the target.

Individuals who have no associations to the usual are coming down with this.
They are calling it(informally) Community-acquired MRSA.

[flashl]

52. Jails spread diseases into nearby neighborhoods

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has an office devoted to the issue.

[Cetacea]

53. Health care facilities. Here is the new CDC study:

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/298/15/1763

[flashl]

56. Agreed

that health care facilities are rife with diseases. I am merely pointing out that there is a segment of the population that appears to go underneath the radar.

According to an older report by the Department of Justice approximately 11.5 million people cycle in and out of prisons and jails each year; the majority of them will spend only a short time in jail.

IIRC, CDC nor anyone else follows this population with their diseases into the community.

[Mutineer]

8. Many high schools have had to be cleaned up, jails too

thanks to cases of this thing. It can kill you and it DOES seem to be spreading.

[Cleita]

12. Ordinary staph is no laughing matter.

It's nearly done me in in the past. I can't even imagine how awful it would be to die of something that virulent. If we don't do something about getting our homeless populations situated in clean places with running water and heat, you can look forward to the spread of this and other deadly diseases. The thing with disease is it plays no favorites. Rich as well as poor have died in past plagues. This will be no different.

[Cetacea]

23. You can pick this one up while buying a Mercedes.

Not sure where you are going with the homeless here.

[Cleita]

37. Homeless need to be put in housing. Shelters breed disease.

I talk to homeless who take their chances in the streets because they say every time they go to a shelter they get sick from something and don't want to get infected with something that is chronic. I don't know if this is airborne, but if it is then it's really bad news.

[SoCalDem]

16. It's not surprising really.. Hospitals are very dirty places

and packed with "bugs"..

and of course almost everything we eat has been treated with chemicals and or hormones & antibiotics before we eat it, so after long exposure to the "common" antibiotics, we are becoming immune.. not a surprise..

I rarely medicated myself or my kids..Hopefully we have some immunity left.. I have friend who would rush their kid to the doctor at the first sniffle, and demand antibiotics..(doctors used to oblige)..

I avoided medicine if i could for the kids, because every time they got medicine, they would end up with diarrhea, which was worse than the "bug" they originally had..sniffles & cough we could handle, but add a sore butt and dehydration to it, and it was more than we wnated to deal with :)

[Cetacea]

19. This is different,

It's a "Community-acquired" infection unlike the infection typically picked up in hospital settings.

[SoCalDem]

54. Weakend immune systems of a community who eats the same foods,

and then they get sick & go to the same hospitals.. Sounds like a "perfect-storm" , in a perverse & sad way:(

[seabeyond]

20. time to make everyone afraid again. n/t

[WinkyDink]

28. Scoff at your own peril. Just don't pick at that scab.

[seabeyond]

30. they have been talking about this problem for a while

and when they started they spoke it was the end of the world. it is not that i am being unrealistic that i and those i love are invincible. it is the reality there is a lot of shit out there. and any point and time in our life we can run into the bad. and at that point, i will deal with it. being informed, knowledgeable and responsible allows me a measure of assurance, but also knowing shit happens, non of us invincible

but the continued yearly dose of some kinda bug going to take out half the world population goes along with losing all control and rights cause fear of terrorist. it is a never ending being afraid to die from the moment we are born i wont participate in

[NewJeffCT]

31. SARS and the bird flu never really scared me

and, my in-laws all live in China... even then, it didn't bother me or make me scared for them.

Heck, even terrorism never really scared me all that much.

This however, seems scarier to me.

[seabeyond]

33. again, i heard this a couple years ago

and since. and yes, it is a problem. a problem they have recognized and been working on for a while. we as a people have created it and is just an evolution of action reaction that we will have to find the answer for. in the meantime to project that it is going to be bigger than aids, imo, is not conducive for problem solving but for creating hysteria.

do i want to go to a hospital? nope. all the disease. i get a sick feeling anytime i go in. now... i watch our owies (for infection) whereas younger would not have even been a thought. having kids, and all the stuff out there to be afraid about has just made me have to sit in that fear and look around and say... nothing is happening here and now. i am not going to feel a physical pain when all is fine. i will deal with what comes

the odds are slight that anything will happen to me or mine. same for you

i just cannot allow fear to grip me, because every time i turn around there is something new, not to mention all the old, to fear

this problem isn't new. we watched it developing and still the people refused to give up an illusion of self protection (excessively using antibiotics) at the detriment of society as a whole.

just as i watch mass groups protect self in so many ways today, that effects the whole negatively.

[Cetacea]

36. And it's living up to it's expectations. n/t

[TZ]

41. Its out of the hospitals and in High Schools and locker rooms

all OVER the place. Even professional sports- many NFL franchises have had issues with this. Brandon Nobel of the Washington Redskins had his career end abruptly because of a MRSA infection.
THe problem isn't new but its getting much worse- Yesterday a student in Northern Va died of MRSA. ANd they hadn't been in the hospital

[seabeyond]

42. i read another thread where a poster says this thread are deniers

of this superbug. i am not denying it. i am aware it exists. too bad people werent aware so long ago. i was reading thru the thread talking about all the antigerm soaps and wipes. i have been fighting those since they came out. the schools have them and adults have been advocating them for years, demanding my children use them, while i have been teaching and stressing to my children to stay away from them to allow their body to learn to fight all these things. i feel the same way about "some" of the vaccinations they are requiring all kids to get. the odds of dying so relatively small i prefer my kids to get it in body and fight it. building up their immune, not wussifying it. yet when i state this i get my ass jumped on in all kinds of manners. just as i did when i would say i didnot like the antigerm soaps and wipes. i say no thnak you to the antibiotics for my children, with doctor approval once i explain my theory on allowing our healthy body to fight it. i am totally anti flu shot for exactly same reason and watch how many will jump on my ass, though the odds so very much in mine and kids favor our body will fight it.

all these things i have implemented in my life because common sense said we were doing this to our bodies, and people have lectured me on the wrong of it.

we knew this was coming and a lot of people ignored it. not me.

[TZ]

65. FYI with flu vaccines...

you are dealing with a VIRUS, different from bacteria. Plus the vaccines are strain specific. You are goning to have to trust me on this (10+ years as a lab tech in immunology+vaccinology) but vaccines do not increase mutations in virus (and don't at all contribute to bacterial drug resistance).
You are right on avoiding anti-biotics WHEN POSSIBLE, and indeed anti-bacterial hand wipes ect have been linked to increased drug resistance in bacteria...

[seabeyond]

66. not only do i trust you on flu being a virus, i already know that

flu is a virus and has nothing to do with bacteria. my point being, instead of giving myself a shot to keep it away from my body, the many many strains, i would prefer for my body to fight it off. i feel that more times than not i wont get sick, and if i do get sick my body will be able to handle. actually only once have i had a lite case of flu. i understand it was off topic, but so was my position on some of the vaccines that we are giving kids. along with all the other ways we are trying to bubble our children not allowing their bodies the chance to fight off illness.

[TZ]

68. yeah but really a vaccine is a natural "boost"

for the immune system, allowing your immunity system to learn how to fight a virus without the body getting total infection. Vaccines actually help your immune system learn. Kinda of a version of playing in the dirt--I do think you have a good point about making bubble children. Someone told me that her kids pediatrician tells them to let the kids play in the dirt to get exposed to stuff..Look at it this way..vaccines do what breast feeding does for kids in a sense..gives us antibodies....

[ChrisCat]

22. My daughter's boyfriend had this

and it was really scary because it was in his lungs and they thought it was TB. He thought he had a cold but it kept getting harder for him to breathe. It was several days before they determined it was staph. He was transferred to an infectious disease unit in St. Louis and placed in isolation for almost a week. It took several different kinds of antibiotics to finally find one the infection responded to.

He's young, only 25, and healthy. He had scraped his knee while putting duct work in an old house and they figured that was how he contracted staph.

[WinkyDink]

27. My best friend died from this, IMO. She opened a boil, got that "flesh-eating" disease that

required a huge thigh chunk's being removed. THEN she developed ICU-requiring pneumonia, but her doctors drew no connection, and even told her she wasn't contagious!! (She asked them, after I explained why I wasn't visiting.) Helllooooo???!!
Then a couple months later she was found dead in her bed.

I believe it was ALL undiagnosed MRSA.

Those of you with children:
http://www.rd.com/content/methicillin-resistant-staphylococcus-aureus/

[Quantess]

49. Thanks for the article

"...kids are at particular risk, although no one is sure why."

Here's my guess. Kids these days have grown up with antibiotic soaps, antibiotic lotions, antibiotic floor polish, antibiotic EVERYTHING! Antibiotics for every widdle sniffle and scrape, given to them by overprotective, germ-phobic parents. Now, their immune systems are unprepared to handle the most trivial germs, let alone an antibiotic-resistant organism.

[pdxmom]

29. This is real. The story about Bedford, VA schools is the only one

to make the national news, but my nephews' school in Rappahannock County closed because 6 members of the football team got staph, including one of my nephews. One boy on the team ended up in the hospital and had 3 surgeries to cut out and drain the infection. Thankfully, they got it under control. Anne Arundel County in Maryland also had an outbreak in their schools. These schools are all interconnected through their sports programs and the theory is that this is how it is spreading.

[Cetacea]

32. "Epidemic", "Limited funds" , Republican President. Familiar?

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06020/641543.stm
(duplicate link)

[AngryAmish]

35. I worry about this one - I don't worry about SARS/Bird Flu

This is really dangerous in the hospital and healthcare setting. It is not endemic in the community (yet).

The reason it is dangerous in the US healthcare setting is the greed of the healthcare professionals and the healthcare corporations will prevent a real attack at this bug.

The way progress is made against this bug is everyone in the hospital gets tested. Obviously the patients and if this bug is on their skin they have to be treated with expensive infection control protocols (no sharing rooms, everyone masked and gloved, etc.)

But the doctors, nurses, janitors, everyone must get tested. If this bug is on their skin (even if asymptomatic) then they can't work until the infection is off of them. Which could take weeks or months. You tell that to a doctor making $5k a day. Or a nurse or a janitor. Do you want to tell them they can't work? They would go ballistic. The unions would go ballistic. No worker's comp - they are not sick, just dangerous. They may know, scientifically, that they are making people sick and killing them, but just like Typhoid Mary they will continue to work because they want/need the money.

This bug live on the skin (asymptotically) of many medical professionals. They turn a blind eye to it because they have to in order to keep working.

[Horse with no Name]

45. Totally unfair

Do you know that attendance requirements in most hospitals is more rigid than Walmart?
Do you know that many nurses end up having to work sick because their EMPLOYER will write them up or fire them if they don't? It has nothing to do with making more money.
There isn't a blind eye turned. Hospitals are so worried about the bottom line these days that they could care less how sick their employees are. Please don't lump dedicated healthcare workers into the same batch as the corporatist pigs that employ them.
I work in and around a newborn nursery and have been REQUIRED to work even when sick and with a fever. I tried to call in and was told it was IMPOSSIBLE to take off. I have sick time, it's just next to impossible to be able to use it.
As far as testing...EVERYONE has staph on their skin. It is considered normal flora. HOWEVER, I would venture to say that MANY healthcare workers ARE colonized--but not sick--with MRSA. I agree, everyone should be tested and treated with Bactroban in the nose for a regimen.
By the way, we aren't fortunate to have a nurses union here in Texas and the majority of nurses I know would rather stay home than infect patients.

[AngryAmish]

51. Not totally unfair

I think it is fair to say that the standard of care in America is not to test health care workers. I sympathize that you have been required top work when ill -- there should be more nurses on call for such a contingency. But that also is expensive.

The problem is colonization with MRSA (that was the word I was looking for and could not remember -thanks) of so many health care workers. If the standard of care was that one could not work if colonized (which it should be) one could imagine that gives a person possibly colonized a disincentive to find out one's colonization status.

Finally, I have met many greedy and venal health care workers. That is a fact.

[aroach]

40. It's Real

I have personally known two people that died off this while in the hospital for other things.

[proud2BlibKansan]

43. My husband had an antibiotic resistant staph infection last year

I don't know if it is the same strain that killed this kid but it was horrific. He cut his leg at work and when the ER stitched it up, he got a staph infection. He almost lost his leg. The doctors told him that if he had been diabetic, they would have amputated his leg as soon as they saw the infection. And it spread so fast! That was really scary. It went from a small red spot to an entire red leg in less than 24 hours. And it took several days to find an antibiotic that worked. It was really scary. He was very sick for several weeks.

[Cetacea]

46. Those symptoms are consistant with MRSA. n/t

[halobeam]

44. I just called my children's school...

asked if Dept of Health has contacted them and given them preventive measures they should take I.e. mandatory hand washing before and after lunch and after gym, (with a door check that each kid has their dirty gym clothes in their bag, ready to take home to be washed.) I asked this because it was a good way to get this conversation going in a positive direction, rather than in a "panicked parent" mode, as many people in school administrations view parent's positions, jmo. I pretty much could guess there hasn't been any contact b/w the Dept of Health and our school.

IMO, this is a reasonable approach to being proactive, not over the top. I did mention if we took healthy measures (our school being a leader in this type of prevention) it may inspire other districts to be vigilant and responsible themselves. I always think that all schools LOVE to be "the leaders" in the community, that's why I mentioned this to them... good PR and all that.

The director of Science at the school agreed and will be looking into this, consulting w/ sports directors, school nurses (covering all cuts/scrapes), lunch room attendants and of course the principal.

Hopefully I am going to see this district take responsible action.

[Horse with no Name]

55. Amusing story

My granddaughter is 4. She has a chronic health condition. I have taught her to wash her hands before and after she eats AND before and after she goes to the bathroom.
She is very conscientious about it.
Her preschool called me the other day. They were "concerned" about her need to wash her hands. :wtf: Apparently, there was a child that had filthy hands who wouldn't wash his hands so my granddaughter took a paper towel and tried to wash them for him. Admittedly, I thought this was quite funny but sat her down and told her about touching other people and getting in their space, etc. She understood and promised she wouldn't do it again.
I was talking to an acquaintance of mine who is a child psychologist and basically just asking if I should be concerned about what the preschool saw as a "concern".
She said most assuredly not, but if the preschool called again concerned about that, I should ask THEM if they contact the parents of the kids who DON'T wash their hands and pursue them with the same zeal.

[Quantess]

57. Some people thrive off being "concerned".

They don't know when to stop.

[seabeyond]

58. by first grade my oldest was washing his hands so much they were bleeding

he already has tendencies toward compulsiveness and was reading encyclopedias at 4 learning about disease, germs ect. his greatest fear was lockjaw. i had to threaten him with a psychiatrist if he could not bring it to moderation. as it is, he is 12 and still has this "affliction" and is concerned about everyone behavior and hygiene ect to the point that it does moderately effect his life.

he would refuse to eat lunch in the first grade because a kid breathes on his food, or kid while talking has germs coming out his mouth. i would join him at lunch and he would have books opened and surrounding his lunch.

so i can understand that a teacher may be concerned there is a problem. simply asking doesn't hurt. and means that the teacher is at least willing to invest in her students. but i also understand the point of so many people "concerned" today. gotta agree with that one too

[Horse with no Name]

59. Which is why I gave it the due consideration and asked a psychologist

I understand the OCD factor and did want to redirect the behavior if needed.
BTW, how have you been? Missed you.:hug:

[seabeyond]

61. peachy. it has been fun reading

your posts here lately too. been waving in mind back atcha.

i have been reading massive books for about a year now and i cant hardly stop. has become an *gasp* obsession. lol

[Horse with no Name]

62. There are a handful of folks I miss if I don't see them post

I had actually looked you up a couple of times. I know it sounds stalkerish...but I meant well.
What kind of books are you reading?

[seabeyond]

64. lol lol lol

i can handle stalk ish.

are you kidding. i read 7/8 books a week. lol i have gone thru so many authors. hoag, brockman, sanders, jb robb, evonivich, gerard, feehan, garwood, brennan, palmer, hill, ashly, york, mckenna, koontz, howard, leigh, krentz, lowell and i could go on

i find an author i like then i have to read all there books. especially if the characters go into other books, then i am hunting high and low. luckly i have a library a mile away and hasting less than a mile, wink. my family is about ready to just shoot me and put me out of my misery.

they thought it was a good thing at first, got me off the board, bah hahahha

thanks horse, i feel the same about you

[halobeam]

71. When kids are taught well,

it stands out. We can't possibly assume common sense, there "must" be something wrong. :sarcasm: Aww gees, considering the germs that are wide spread in the schools, its because of bad policy, imo, there isn't a procedure with children to practice responsibility to promote prevention of spreading disease. It's a matter of self respect, and the respect for others.

[ThePowerofWill]

60. I do some work at an MMA gym as a submission wrestling coach.

Over the past 6 months to a year staph has been running rampant through many gyms. I was not aware the exposure was so wide spread in other places.

[JitterbugPerfume]

63. handwashing is still

the best preventative

[cathandler]

70. Our 4-year old grandson just had MRSA.

He had scoliosis surgery at Children's Hospital in Denver back in May and a month ago had to go back in because the screws in his lower vertebrae had become loose. The doctors discovered that he had MRSA in the soft tissue around that appliance. He's okay now, but because he has a trach, his immune system is already compromised. Usually, he just gets pseudomonas - when I read this article, I actually got a little sick to my stomach.

[renate]

72. poor little guy... I'm so glad he's okay now

How incredibly scary that must have been. I hope it wasn't too painful for him; it was probably a lot tougher on his family. it's excruciating to see any loved one, but especially a child, in a situation like that.

You said "usually he just gets pseudomonas"--I hope that stops too, but I especially hope he won't have to deal with MRSA again. :hug: