Experts seek clues on staph infections
By: ADRIENNE P. SAMUELS
Abstract:
It's nothing close to an outbreak, said county epidemiologist Julia Gill, because nearly everyone has staph anyway. The bacteria grow on human skin and can be found in the nasal cavity.
Staph turns into a problem when it infects its host and causes deep skin abscesses, painful boils or when it infects the blood and causes sepsis, which leads to death, Gill said. Death is rare, she said.
Drug resistant diseases are becoming more of a problem as people overmedicate and take antibiotics that they don't need, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Health Department says it is important that a doctor take a culture of a staph abscess to check it against known antibiotics. This makes it easier to discover which antibiotic will kill that particular staph infection.
Article:
Pinellas County Health Department officials continue investigating who or what may have caused staph infections in up to 10 local residents.
Four of those people were referred to the Pinellas County Health Department by hospitals. Others were referred by clinics and doctors.
Health Department officials don't normally monitor staphylococcus aureus, but they are looking into the 10 reported infections, most of them in or near Clearwater, because this particular strain is resistant to the drug normally given to those with the infection.
It's nothing close to an outbreak, said county epidemiologist Julia Gill, because nearly everyone has staph anyway. The bacteria grow on human skin and can be found in the nasal cavity.
But since Sept. 4, she said, four people are confirmed to have the drug-resistant strain of the infection, and six others are suspected to have it.
"We're monitoring it because it looks as if some of the cases were linked," Gill said. "We want to make sure where these people are and where they're living. We want to make sure that people who do have it know what to do to limit the spread of the organism within their family, friends and housemates."
Staph turns into a problem when it infects its host and causes deep skin abscesses, painful boils or when it infects the blood and causes sepsis, which leads to death, Gill said. Death is rare, she said.
"If you went to a normal general healthy population and swabbed noses, you'd find a lot of people that have this," Gill said.
The Health Department also is concerned that some of those already infected seem to know each other or to have lived in the same place.
County scientists are testing each person to determine the host carrier of the staph bacteria. If it turns out that the host lived in a group home, hospital or jail, then people living there will have to take extra care to wash their hands more frequently and not share intimate clothing or towels.
Drug resistant diseases are becoming more of a problem as people overmedicate and take antibiotics that they don't need, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Health Department says it is important that a doctor take a culture of a staph abscess to check it against known antibiotics. This makes it easier to discover which antibiotic will kill that particular staph infection.
One of the 10 infected people came from the Clearwater Free Clinic. Staff members there say that a person who came in a few weeks ago with an abscess was referred to the Health Department.
For more information, please contact:
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