In the past few weeks, reports of MRSA cases have become more common throughout the United States and Europe. Staph infections like this are scary buggers, but should we be concerned about a pandemic?

The answer is no. Which isn’t to say that you shouldn’t be taking precautions to prevent the spread of infection, but Dr Chris Ohl reports that the number of cases for MRSA in the past 3-5 years have not increased exponentially. The concern from Health Officials is not in the number of cases reported about the infection, but the lack of knowledge on the part of both hospital employees and the general public on what to look for. The sad truth is that many times a case for MRSA is misdiagnosed as a spider bite or even an ingrown hair that’s become infected.

It’s important to know what to look for, and the proper way to go about treating symptoms. MRSA infections start out as small red bumps, often resembling pimples or spider bites that can quickly turn into deep, painful abscesses.

You should contact a doctor if:

• You or your child has an area of skin that’s red, painful, swollen, and/or filled with pus

• You or your child has inflamed skin and is also feverish or feels sick

• Skin infections seem to be passing from one family member to another or if two or more family members have skin infections at the same time

MRSA is most often colonized within and around the nose, and like many infectious diseases people can have it without ever suffering symptoms. You shouldn’t wait for an outbreak to start taking preventative measures to keep from spreading or contracting the infection. None of these actions are extreme, or require a lot of effort.

• Keeping your hands clean with an antibacterial soap such as GymSoap. Hands should be washed after every visit to the restroom, whenever food or trash is handled, or after sneezing/coughing.

• Do not share personal items like towels, razors, loofahs, clothing, or sheets. Be sure to wipe down athletic equipment with sanitizing wipes before and after each use.

• Shower immediately after exercising (whether it be at the gym or on the field). GymSoap is a highly effective body soap that kills 99.9% of germs and bacteria.

• Keep open wounds covered, and don’t participate in games, practices or other events that involve physical contact if there’s a risk that your open wound(s) will become exposed.

• Sanitize your linens. If you have a cut or sore, wash towels and bed linens in a washing machine set to the “hot” water setting (with added bleach, if possible) and dry them in a hot dryer. Wash gym and athletic clothes after each wearing.

• If you have a skin infection that requires treatment, ask your doctor if you should be tested for MRSA. Doctors may prescribe drugs that aren’t effective against antibiotic-resistant staph, which delays treatment and creates more resistant germs. Testing specifically for MRSA may get you the specific antibiotic you need to effectively treat your infection.

• Use antibiotics appropriately. When you’re prescribed an antibiotic, take all of the doses, even if the infection is getting better. Don’t stop until your doctor tells you to stop. Don’t share antibiotics with others or save unfinished antibiotics for another time. Inappropriate use of antibiotics, including not taking all of your prescription and overuse, contributes to resistance. If your infection isn’t improving after a few days of taking an antibiotic, contact your doctor.

Stanisław Jerzy Lec, a Polish poet, once said “All is in the hands of man. Therefore, wash them often.” Now, more than ever, does that statement hold true. With germs and infections spreading so easily these days, it’s important to take preventative measures to keep oneself safe.

Since the death of Alonzo Smith in the past week, several more cases of MRSA have popped up across Central Florida, including another Liberty High School student. The school, which had been declared clean by Osceola County health officials, has local parents worried and uncertain what to expect. Other cases that have appeared include one student at Stanton Weirsdale Elementary in Marion County, and four employees of Harris Corporation in Brevard County.

MRSA is contracted through skin/skin contact, as well as encounters with cuts and sores. There are several things that one can do to help prevent the spread of this disease.

By Sarah Scrafford

Although average, healthy people generally do not need to worry about picking up germs, dirt, and diseases from everyday objects, it doesn’t hurt to be careful about limiting your (or that of your loved ones) contact with potential bacterial breeding grounds. The objects you touch every day are potentially loaded with nasties like fecal matter, e. coli, and salmonella. To stay safe, be sure to make a regular habit of washing your hands, be careful about touching your mouth and eyes, and avoid touching these objects as much as you can.

The Office

Your office is a landmine of germs. Here are a few things you should be wary of.

1. Mouse: If you work on your computer throughout the day, germs from everything you’ve touched now live on your mouse, a device that is rarely cleaned.
2. Desktop: You may think the cleaning crew is taking care of it, but most offices have instructions not to clean desktops because people don’t want their papers messed with.
3. Keyboard: Take a hard look at your keyboard and think of the last time you cleaned it. Now think about everything you touch every day, and all of the people who sneeze, cough, or just sit at your computer.
4. Hands: With the office comes handshakes, which leave you susceptible to whatever germs others have to share.
5. Copier: Your sneezing coworker’s virus germs can live on the copier for up to 72 hours.
6. Telephone: Has anyone used your phone recently? Their saliva and germs from their hands are all over your telephone.
7. Candy bowl: The office candy bowl is full of germs, with everyone putting their hands in and sharing what they have. What’s worse, those germs will come into direct contact with your mouth when you eat the candy.
8. The coffee machine: Bacteria and viruses from others’ coffee cups and hands contaminate the office coffee pot.
9. Fax machine: Just like the copier, your office fax machine is a germy breeding ground.

Out and About

Once you leave the office, you’re far from safe from germs. Here we’ll take a look at the dirty objects you come into contact with while shopping, working out, eating, and just living your life.

1. ATM: Germs from the dirty fingertips of every customer before you will wait to greet you at your bank’s ATM.
2. Steering wheel: When you get in the car, one of the first things you’ll touch is your steering wheel-and you’ll leave plenty of germs behind to pick up later.
3. Public reading material: The magazines at your hairdresser’s and your doctor’s office are more than likely never cleaned, and they’re touched by multiple people every day.
4. Restaurant menus: Menus are very rarely washed, but they’re touched by everyone. So many people have touched restaurant menus before you have, you could be getting germs from hundreds of people.
5. Public pens: The pen at your bank, your doctor’s office, and the checkout have all been touched by many, many people before you.
6. Escalator: The escalator is home to hundreds, even thousands of different hands, diapered bottoms, and more.
7. Gas pump: It’s best to wash your hands after pumping gas, as the handle has been touched by numerous gas guzzlers before you.
8. Taxi: Taxis are often home to fecal organisms, and even oral bacterium spready by just talking.
9. Chair armrests: Researchers have found that chair armrests are among the germiest places in public due to their frequent use.
10. Dining tables: The people that dined before you in the mall’s food court may not leave a tip, but they’ll be happy to share plenty of bacteria.
11. Money: Money is handled by many different people, and can contain traces of drugs, fecal matter, viruses, and more.
12. Payphone: Payphones are like your office phone, but much worse. You’ll be subject to the hand, face, and mouth germs from anyone who used the phone before you.
13. Elevator buttons: With dirty elevator buttons, one can only hope that the people who have selected your floor before you have washed their hands recently.
14. Drinking fountain: Drink from a water fountain, and you’ll be subject to the germs of people who have come before you, some even putting their mouths directly on the fountain.
15. Credit card: When you hand over your credit card, it’s touched by a cashier, swiped through a reader where many other people’s cards have been swiped, and may even be placed on a dirty countertop.
16. Soap dispensers: Yes, an object you touch to get clean can be dirty. If the soap isn’t in its own sealed bad, chances are it’s a breeding ground for bacteria.
17. Vending machines: Think twice about popping the top on your soda, or opening up your chips without washing your hands first.
18. Shopping cart: A University of Arizona study has found that almost two-thirds of shopping carts were infected with fecal bacteria, more than the average public bathroom.
19. Pedestrian traffic light button: This heavy traffic area is more than likely not cleaned routinely.
20. Lemon wedges: In 2007, the Journal of Environmental Health found that nearly 70% of lemon wedges in restaurant glasses had disease-causing microbes.
21. The diving board ladder: Your neighborhood pool’s diving ladder is only as clean as the pool is, and is often contaminated with dirty feet from the area around the pool as well as the bathroom floor.
22. Monkey bar handles: All of the children who came before yours have left their mark on playground equipment with colds and other viruses.
23. The gym: Although your gym may clean its equipment, it’s never enough. You can pick up plenty of germs from skin, sweat, and saliva left over from other visitors.

At Home

You may think your home is sacred from germs, but it’s full of often under-cleaned surfaces and sources of bacteria.

1. Doorknob: Remember all those germs you picked up at the office and on your way home? They live on your doorknob now.
2. Vacuum: Your vacuum brush is full of bacteria, and can spread germs from contaminated surfaces to uncontaminated ones.
3. Light switch: This often-touched object is generally not cleaned often enough to eliminate germs.
4. Your contact lens case: Your eyes are the last place you want germs to be near, but a Chinese study has found that 34% of contact lens cases had germs that could cause an inflammatory eye disease.
5. Your pets: Your pets can bring in bacteria from your backyard and the dog park, which can end up on your hands, couch, bed, and flooring.
6. Your bed: More than 84% of US homes have dust mites, which feed off of your dead skin. Your bed is a breeding ground for these mites, as they thrive in the humidity of a bed that’s made up.
7. Shower curtain: Vinyl shower curtains thrive in soap scum, and they’re spread around by your shower spray.
8. Library books: You may be in possession of the book now, but the people who have checked it out before you may have been reading it in the bathroom.
9. TV remotes: Your remotes are frequently touched, and infrequently cleaned.
10. Refrigerator door handle: Your refrigerator door is likely home to bacteria picked up while preparing food like eggs and raw meat.
11. Kitchen sink: Germs love to thrive in this moist environment.
12. Toothbrush: Your toothbrush retails bacteria from your illnesses, and can even be home to fecal matter if you leave it near your toilet.
13. Laundry basket: You can pick up plenty of germs from handling underwear in your laundry basket.
14. Cutting board: Germs and bacterial love to live in the cracks and crevices of cutting boards.
15. Stuffed animals: Stuffed animals get dragged around all over your home, and pick up every bit of dirt along the way.

Everywhere

These dirty objects follow you around wherever you go.

1. Cell phone: Think of all the places where you set your cell phone down, and then think about how closely it rests on your face.
2. mp3 player: Your mp3 player picks up germs much in the same way as your cell phone-by being set down places like your car’s cup holders, or dirty tabletops.
3. Your purse: Women often set their purse on the floor or bathroom counter without thinking of the germs that lurk on those surfaces.

Of course, just because everything we touch is dirty, doesn’t mean that we have to be. Using an anti-bacterial soap like GymSoap® can help to prevent the spread of germs and disease. It’s not just effective against gym-related diseases, but can actually help anywhere there’s a risk.

After the 14 second Knock Out of Illegal Internet Street Fighting Legend Kimbo Slice, Seth the Silver Back Petruzelli tells Milkintheclock reporter he saw the fear in the eyes of Kimbo Slice before the fight began. With only 10 minutes notice and a 30 pound weight deficit The SilverBack made Slicing Kimbo look easy. Although somewhat unknown this was not Seth’s first David and Goliath triumph. Mr. Petruzelli mentioned he used same locker room when he defeated Dan Severn in 2004.

INTERVIEW BY: MTC NEWS NETWORK

Germs are everywhere, and the truth is that they’re not entertaining little green cartoons that sound like construction workers from Long Island. The family, friends, and school mates of Alonzo Smith learned that the hard way when the high school footballer died over the weekend from a staph infection known as MRSA. The acronym, which stands for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is a skin infection that commonly resides on the skin or in a person’s nose. It is rarely deadly, but when left untreated can cause serious health issues.

While an investigation is underway, it is unlikely that officials will be able to determine exactly where Smith contracted the infection. Bacteria is not limited to direct contact from an infected individual, but can be contracted off of common surfaces such as counter tops, door knobs, or exercise equipment.

Most MRSA infections can still be treated by antibiotics, but there are steps that can be taken to help prevent someone from contracting the infection to begin with. Always wear clean exercise clothing, and never reuse a towel without washing it. Damp towels are prime spots for germs and infections to gather, especially when left overnight in a locker. Use an antibacterial and antifungal soap like GymSoap when showering to help stop the disease before it develops. You should wash your hands regularly as our hands touch more than any other part of the body, and never share cleaning equipment such as towels, loofahs, or razors.

It’s important to know what to look for if you do run the risk of contracting MRSA or any other staph infection. With MRSA the infection often appears as pustules or boils that are hot, red, swollen, painful or have pus and can be accompanied by a fever. They most often occur at places where there have been cuts or abrasions.

Liberty High School, where Smith was a student, will be holding a ceremony on Friday night during their homecoming football game to honor the senior. His funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at Assembly of God Church in Lake Wales. Well liked and known for being a good kid, it is certain that Alonzo Smith will be missed among the Kissimmee community that he has been a part of.