I felt so bad reading about this new germ that is causing life-threatening infections. MRSA stands for methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and it a type of germ that is hard to treat. Methicillin is an antibiotic that is a type of penicillin. The microbe, a strain of a staph bacterium, has become invulnerable to first-line antibiotics. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is responsible for more than 94,000 serious infections and nearly 19,000 deaths each year. People want to be healthy and for years we trusted antibiotics and they worked! Now, antibiotic resistant strains are causing all sorts of infections and researchers and doctors feel helpless. The physicians who try to limit the use of antibiotics get angry reactions from their patients who don’t feel well and want something to make them feel better. Parents worry about ear infections that are not clearing up as more and more of those are becoming resistant to antibiotics. Researchers struggle to come up with new antibiotics to attempt to defeat super-bugs.
Being a Life Coach who works primarily with people on health issues, I immediately started thinking about how we can stay healthy and avoid this latest threat. MRSA can be on the skin, in the nose, in the blood or urine. Another person can pick up this germ by touching it. One of best defenses could be washing our hands properly. A healthy person who picks up this germ may not carry it or get sick from it if he or she washes it off right away. We need to teach our children to wash their hands properly and often and we need to do the same. When we touch our noses or mouths, we again need to wash our hands. All people should remember to cough into their arm rather than their hands. These are simple things that can prevent a lot of germ transfer. Waterless hand sanitizers, like Endure or Purell are thought to kill the MRSA germ.
Hospitals can do more to reduce the infection’s spread by standard hygiene measures.
We all need to think more about the overuse of antibiotics and simple things we can do to stay healthy in the first place. Getting enough sleep and making sure our children get enough rest is an important first step in staying healthy. Eating plenty of fruit and vegetables and taking a daily multivitamin can keep your body strong against all sorts of invaders. We have to slow down and relax more to reduce stress. There is a lot out there that can harm us, but we are not helpless. We can make our bodies strong to fight whatever we come up against!
Diana Fletcher 