My daughter has Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)- please help?

my daughter has this and i was reading lots bad thing s it can cause fatality. im so scare . she is 3 and im just wondering if this ever gonna go away . any of you know soemone with this same issue. also im wondering if i should get check and also my 7 month old?

I already had her DR check various times she just keeps on giving antibotics such as

sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprin
ceron syp cypress

dont know if this is right or have to check with someone else

There are many different areas the body can harbor MRSA, thru a nasal swab (the nose is the most common source), wound cultures and blood. Anyone who spends alot of time in the hospital (employees too) can harbor MRSA bacteria.

Will it go away? again is it from a nasal swab? You must have 3 negative cultures to be considered no longer a carrier.

subsequent hospitalizations will require your child to be placed in isolation category 1, which is good hand hygiene and a gown on all those coming in contact with your child.

If you and your other child are healthy, the chances of "catching" it are very low, those most susceptible are those with weakened immune systems, or again those that spend alot of time around or in hospitals.

The internet is a wonderful tool, but sometimes we find the 1 in a billlion chance it yes it frightens us. Please call your childs pediatrician or health department, and get information that applies to your daughter.

MRSA is difficult at any age to treat due to its' nature of resistance. Call St. Jude's Children's Hospital( check their web site:www.stjude's.com) and ask for their advise. Your child is too young for this type of an infection. It can be spread to to hers depending on the nature of the resistant strain, have everyone checked to be safe and have peace of mind. Talk to doctors and infection control specialist not talk show hosts and newspapers.

First of all, your child is not going to die from this. It is the super bug of Staph aureus. We all have staph and strep bacteria on the skin. Unfortunately from all the antibiotic usage some strains of staph aureus have mutated and are resistant to many antibiotics. Yes, you and your 7 month old could get the same thing.
Wash your 3 year old's sheets and clothing separately in hot water.
There are different strains of MRSA. Community acquired MRSA is less severe and often does well with Septra/Bactrim pills. Often times Mucopuricyn ointment can be put on the areas to help them go away along with antibiotics.
Hospital acquired MRSA is very resistant and usually needs IV antibiotics.
Ask your pediatrician to culture the MRSA to see what antibiotic it is sensitive to.
I personally used Augmentin with my MRSA patients with great success even though it is not what the CDC recommends. Augmentin is a specialized Amoxicillin and it has not been used to test the MRSA, therefore noone uses it.
If all else fails, see an infectious medicine specialist for your child.

definatly get checked out my sisters friend got it then her whole class got it including her... it does go away if u treat it w/ the meds they give u and if u have it really bad u can die but that is only if u dont treat it... an old man recently died from it he didnt treat it b/c he thought it was a spider bite
good luck
u are in my prayers

My daughter got this last fall, she is still battling it. My husband had it last spring, he was very seriously ill with it, had I.V. Antibiotics for six weeks. Do have your little one checked. It is rarely fatal.

it is scary and used to affect only the bums and druggies. overuse of antibiotics has caused it to proliferate. make sure that all antibiotics are finished, there is follow up care with the pediatrician, the house is thoroughlly cleaned, and everyone washes their hands better.

Relax. We all have staph on our skin. You can have a doctor do a nasal culture and you and everyone in your family will have it. MRSA is just a strain that is HIGHLY resistant to antibiotics from overuse and people NOT FINISHING THEIR PRESCRIBED COURSE !! ( that is my biggest pet peeve, as it does us all harm) The usual course of treatment is Bactrim in kids. Some doctors use Doxycycline in adults but will not in kids as it discolors their teeth. Usually an antiobiotic ointment is applied to the abcess called Mupirocin or Bacitracin. ( Neosporin is worthless to us all as WE ARE ALL RESISTANT TO IT! LOL ) There is also a surgical scrub called Hibiclens. ( your doc can give you an Rx for it) that she should wash in til she finished the course of sulfa drugs . Just wash your hands with it after dressing changes. MRSA is extremely common in the area I live in. We have patients that come in thinking they have a spider bite and it ends up being MRSA. It sounds scary but do not read the crap on the internet. Your daughter will be fine. Just make sure she takes the entire course of medication even if the abcess clears. The antibiotic works for several days afterward.

Jasonswifey below me is an idiot. It is not flesh eating bacteria ! Good Lord !!!! It is an overgrowth of the staph you already have.It can enter a wound and it causes abcesses. Yes, it is true that it most likely will reoccur. There is an erradication process that can be taken for people that truly have frequent reoccurances that involves using mupirocin nasally but the entire treatment course should be discussed with an infectious disease specialist. Please do not listen to people that have no medical license or training on here. Talk to a real live, in person physician instead of letting some idiot work you up into hysterics about your little girl. The internet is full of false or misleading crap. Most physicians will tell you the worst thing you can do is try to dig up medical info on the net. Flesh eating bacteria ! LMAO !!!

unfortunately this is not a disease that goes away i have numerous friends that have mrsa and i suffer from frequent staph infections it is a bacteria that lives on your skin and the slightest scratch can cause an "episode" being put quite bluntly it is a flesh eating bacteria

Me and both my daughters got MRSA. My girls were 2 weeks and 11 months old when we all got it. We ended up with skin abscesses, which is how we were diagnosed. You should definately get your 7 month old and yourself and dad tested, anyone could be carriers without having symptoms. It is just a simple nasal swab, if the Dr. knows what they are doing it doesn't hurt. If they try to shove it all the way back in your nose, leave and find a new Dr. - they don't know enough about MRSA. It lives primarily in your nose, but in the front not way in the back like some people think. The best doctor to treat it in children is a Pediatric Infectious Disease specialist. I went to one at UCLA medical center and followed her advice and we finally got rid of it after nearly a year of trying with our regular Pediatrician, who just didn't know enough about it to help us.

First thing is that everyone in the house has to be tested - if one person is carrying it everyone could get re-infected at any time. Everyone who has it will be given one or two oral antibiotics. In order to know what antibiotics will work they will have to send your nasal swab to a lab to get a culture AND a suseptability test. This is the only way to know what meds will kill your particular strain. They will also give you a cream to rub in your noses 3 times a day with a cotton swab.

First thing, cut everyone's fingernails as short as possible. MRSA is transmitted by touching the bug (like rubbing or blowing your nose) and then touching someone or a common object like a door knob. It can get caught under your fingernails and stay there even after you wash your hands. Its very important to cut your nails super short then scrub them with a scrub brush and soap.

Next, go through your entire house with a spray bottle of bleach solution and paper towels (not a sponge or rag) and clean every hard surface that people commonly touch. This can include your door knobs, kitchen cabinet knobs, fridge door handle, stove knobs, microwave handle, faucets, kitchen table, every surface of your bathroom, washing machine knobs, computer desk, car door handle, shifter and steering wheel. Then was all your sheets, blankets, towels and slip covers in hot water and soap and put them in the dryer. Don't worry about them shrinking - better your family be healthy. Wash any hard surfaces that your kids use, like a bouncer or ride on toy, high chair or other plastic toys with the bleach solution. After it dries, wipe it thouroughly with baby wipes to clean any bleach residue off and make it safe for the kids to touch again. Wash any of their washable toys in the washing machine. Anything that can not be washed with spray bottle of bleach, the washing machine, or dishwasher should be removed for a short time. Do what you can to sanitize it (like using alcohol wipes) then leave it somewhere warm and dry (like your yard on a sunny day) to air out. Don't let the kids have them back for at least a week. This will give any bacteria on the toys enough time to dry out and die before giving them back to the kids. Remove soft covers from high chairs and car seats and wash them in the washer.

This is the hard part. Be vigilant about hand washing. Try not to let your kids touch each other too much (I know, its hard with young siblings - I have them too). If they touch their nose wash their hands under running water with soap (not antibacterial, it won't help) before they can touch anything or anyone. It is very hard to do, but it will be the one thing that could keep your 7 month old form getting it from your 3 year old.

Your course of treatment could last up to 3 months, depending on the type of medicine they give you. When its done, get everyone re-tested to make sure its gone.

Good luck!

I just wrote about the bleach. I had a feeling it was a MRSA question. Trust me, you have to bleach everything, and make sure the MRSA is not being transferred onto you and your children. Maybe, you are more informed about impetigo. Impetigo is a LOT like MRSA, only MRSA does more harm. As far as catching it, though........treat it like you would treat Impetigo.