There was a large variety of things I did today, just as there was yesterday. The day started off rather slowly as the hospital was unusually quiet, the porters told me. We did a few patient transfers and ran a few bloods down to pathology as usual but then I was allowed to transfer a patient myself which was, believe it or not, very exciting.
I was told he has MRSA, so I had to wear a plastic apron and gloves before I went near him just to make sure I didn't either catch it myself or spread it around the hospital.I then wheeled him to a ward on an upper floor having a nice chat on the way, before depositing him at his destination. I later did some research and found out a bit more about MRSA because it is a very well known illness yet I found myself with little knowledge when I actually came across it.
MRSA stands for Methicilin-resistant Straphylococcus aureus and it is a common type of bacteria which about 25% of people have living naturally in their nostrils without even knowing that it's there (that was the most common statistic I found, but different sources ranged from 1% to 70%). For many there are no symptoms but for others the symptoms can range from small boils on the skin to septicemia, and can lead to death in a considerable number of cases without proper treatment. The problem with this particular bacterium is that it is very resistant to antibiotics and has become more so recently as it has been treated more and more, as only the most resistant strains are surviving. MRSA is spread by contact mostly, and then the bacteria have to enter an opening such as an open wound or the nose. This is why the problem is heightened in hospitals - with healthcare staff touching one patient and then touching another without appropriate sanitisation in between. Also those in hospital tend to have a weekend immune system due to either illness or age so this makes them even more susceptible to the infection.
I also stumbled across a new treatment which is being tested for MRSA, using nanotechnology. To read th whole article go to: http://www.healthcareglobal.com/healthcare_technology/treating-mrsa-with-nanotechnology-and-nanomedicine, but the explanation of how it works is as follows,
"The cationic nanostructures can selectively target and disintegrate bacterial membranes that are negatively charged via electrostatic interaction and insertion into the membrane lipid domains, destroying the integrity of the membrane and hence, avoiding potential bacterial resistance."
That seems like quite an impressive discovery, since the main issue currently with MRSA treatment is the ability of the bacteria to resist the antibiotics and this is completely eradicating that issue. Also, if it had been created to target particular bacterial membranes, surely the molecules can be adapted to specifically target a different surface antigen on a different bacteria to expand this technology to make it able to treat all bacterial infections? That would be an amazing breakthrough. However at the moment the technology hasn't even been tested on living organisms so it is still in very early stages of research.
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