'Hospital visitors may be infection carriers'.

Byline: K.S. Ramkumar

JEDDAH: Hospital visitors may carry infections home if they do not take precautions, says an American expert.

"Such infections acquired through direct contact in hospitals and health care centers can be most dangerous resulting in severe pneumonia that infects the elderly and low-immunity individuals," said Dr. Julio Ramirez, professor of medicine and chief of the division of infectious diseases at the School of Medicine in the University of Louisville, Kentucky.

Ramirez was speaking at a presentation organized by Pfizer on the management of serious MRSA infections acquired through direct contact in hospitals. MRSA is the name given to a group of bacteria, which belong to the Staphylococcus aureus family of bacteria. A person is infected if bacteria enter the body through a cut, a graze or any break in the skin - either through accident or deliberate, for example, a drip or surgical cut. Bacteria can then cause skin infections or other more severe infections inside the body.

The severity of the infection depends on where the bacteria spread inside the body. If the infection is just under the skin, MRSA can cause pimples or boils. The affected areas may be swollen, painful and red.

If bacteria get into a person's blood stream, usually through a deep wound, they can spread throughout the body and cause wound infections, abscesses, pneumonia (lung infection), septicemia (blood poisoning), osteomyelitis (bone infection), septic arthritis (joint infection), heart valve infections, urinary tract infections, etc.

Implanted devices, such as hip or knee replacements, can also become infected.

"The people most at risk of becoming either colonized or infected with MRSA are those in close contact with people who may be carrying the bacteria, for example those in hospital wards who care for sick people," Dr. Ramirez said.

"As a preventive measure, people, therefore, need to be very careful in washing their hands before leaving the health care center they visit and again on reaching home," he added.

There has been a rise in such infections, even outside hospitals. Healthy individuals are getting infected with cellular and dermatological infections. He noted that a certain pharmaceutical formula was the only cure available for such infections. However, due to the shortcomings of that formula - its inability to properly reach infected cells and the high degree of resistance from the bacteria - the percentages of its failure have significantly increased. Now, a new pharmaceutical formula has been discovered which has an incredible ability to reach the infected tissues.

This contributes to a speedy healing and early discharge of patients from hospitals, which reduces the expenses of treatment in addition to the higher level of medical comfort.

Copyright: Arab News 2009 All rights reserved.

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