New strain of strep emerges as major U.S. infection

Aja

This is a bit scary as 2 of our local schools were shut down today after they found it .....

Skylace · Admin Joined: 29 Apr 2006 Location: Pittsburgh, PA

I had seen this on the news last night. It really is scary. I am sorry that it's so close to you as well. I've not heard of anything in Pitt, yet.

luke · Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Location: by the sea

we have big problems with mrsa over here, but not in schools - just hospitals. thats a shocking figure though - 18000 a year! and they've been documenting the increase for the last 20 years?!

Skylace · Admin Joined: 29 Apr 2006 Location: Pittsburgh, PA

This is honestly one reason I have stayed away from antibiotics unless I really needed them. My body needs to know how to fight stuff on it's own.

faceless · admin Joined: 25 Apr 2006

I saw a thing recently about a lot of kids not having decent immune systems because they are protected from them so much in early life these days - the idea being that if you let your kids get dirty and catch minor infections they build up a tolerance for others. That seems to make sense for me.

eefanincan · Admin Joined: 29 Apr 2006 Location: Canada

I have to agree with you, Face. I think it's true that children these days don't have the immune systems they should. (Personally, I also think this is why there are more and more children getting cancer -- but that's just my opinion). I'm all for immunizations, mind you, but I think we're getting to the point where it's becoming too much.

MRSA is a wicked thing, but, the majority of us, if tested, would be positive. The key thing to remember from that article is that MRSA is generally benign if in the nose or on the skin. It's when it gets into an open would that it tends to become the serious problem.

I take some of the things in the article with a grain of salt... especially that of dr's and nurses not washing their hands. I can honestly say that the people I've worked with go out of their way to make sure hands are washed---- in fact, it's this frequent hand washing that puts us nurses at increased risk of MRSA infection. We get dry, cracked skin which means the bacteria now has a way to get into the blood stream. Damned if you do and damned if you don't Smile

Mandy · Joined: 07 Feb 2007

Related report : http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2007-10/20/content_6913118.htm

Studies have shown that living in an ultra clean place (versus the countryside which is "dirtier") is correlated with increased chances of conditions like Asthma.

I personally am for the 1st jab of MMR given at birth, but not the 2nd/booster jab which I think is overkill which is given without testing if it is needed or can be physically handled by the child.

Since we touched on the subject
Jenny McCarthy on The View (9-25-07) Discussing the possible link between Vaccines and Autism
http://www.spiderednews.com/DiseasesandConditions.htm?vid=184550

Skylace · Admin Joined: 29 Apr 2006 Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Mandy · Joined: 07 Feb 2007

Thanks Skylace for your "front line" experience. I agree with you about the over-diagnosing and over-prescribing of drugs for kids.

From a personal viewpoint, the decay in the authority / integrity of the institutions which are supposed to protect us has led to almost a knee jerk scepticism of everything "big government" tells us is good for us.

Whether this scepticism is healthy or not is another issue.

p.s. Note Jenny's video : she is asking for more research to see if doctors are simply overwhelming/poisoning children's body (of which vaccines are only a possible component).