Hello Kennybob,
Staph. Aureus normally lives, as Pafalafa-ga said, on human skin. In
fact, over 30% of adults carry S. aureus in their nose! In a healthy
person, Staph poses no threat... it?s when the healthy person exposes
the compromised patient-one who is already sick, one with a wound or
surgical scar that Staph causes problems. The primary source of
hospital acquired infections (nosocomial infections) is through
improper hand-washing. Bacteria are very tough, and can be found even
in volcanoes and the frozen tundra. Most can survive long periods of
time with no nutrients or water,
?Human staphylococcal infections are frequent, but usually remain
localized at the portal of entry by the normal host defenses. The
portal may be a hair follicle, but usually it is a break in the skin
which may be a minute needle-stick or a surgical wound. Foreign
bodies, including sutures, are readily colonized by staphylococci,
which may makes infections difficult to control. Another portal of
entry is the respiratory tract. Staphylococcal pneumonia is a frequent
complication of influenza. The localized host response to
staphylococcal infection is inflammation, characterized by an elevated
temperature at the site, swelling, the accumulation of pus, and
necrosis of tissue.
Around the inflamed area, a fibrin clot may form, walling off the
bacteria and leukocytes as a characteristic pus-filled boil or
abscess. More serious infections of the skin may occur, such as
furuncles or impetigo. Localized infection of the bone is called
osteomyelitis. Serious consequences of staphylococcal infections occur
when the bacteria invade the blood stream. A resulting septicemia may
be rapidly fatal; a bacteremia may result in seeding other internal
abscesses, other skin lesions, or infections in the lung, kidney,
heart, skeletal muscle or meninges.?
S. aureus bacteria have surface proteins that facilitate their
sticking to a host?s (patient)skin, blood, stitches, and wounds.
http://textbookofbacteriology.net/staph.html
http://www.surgical-tutor.org.uk/default-home.htm?core/preop1/staph_strep.htm~right
?Unfortunately, depending on the patient type and surgery, as many as
30 percent of individuals who undergo surgery experience post-surgery
infection. For 18 percent of these people, the infection persists for
six months or longer.?
?In many ways, the prevention of nosocomial infection is similar to
the everyday strategies that we all use to protect ourselves from
disease. Hospitals routinely perform procedures such as handwashing,
identification of potentially infected patients, isolation of
individuals known to be infected, and cleaning the environment.
Because the stakes in the battle against infection are higher in the
hospital setting than they are at home, hospitals have a few more
tools at their disposal. Dr. Trish M. Perl of Johns Hopkins
University, Baltimore, Maryland, is an infectious disease specialist
who studies nosocomial infection rates and tests strategies designed
to reduce those rates. This summer she presented the results of her
recent research on the ability of mupirocin, an antibiotic, to prevent
post-surgery infection.?
http://rx.magazine.tripod.com/ph_20001213.htm
MRSA ? Methicillin Resistant Staph. aureus
?MRSA can be found on the skin and nose but only causes infection if
it invades the skin to gain access to body tissues. Any wound, open
site, sore, or site of an invasive device is a possible site for
bacterial entry and subsequent infection. Reduce cross-infection by
recognizing the following risk factors that increase susceptibility to
MRSA:[4]
· Open wounds or pressure ulcers.
· Any invasive device (e.g., tracheostomy, gastrostomy tube,
nasogastric tube, intravenous catheter, indwelling bladder catheter,
etc.).
· Recent antimicrobial therapy.
· Hospitalization within the past six months.
· Increased age.
· Male gender (independent of age).
?Ensure that proper room cleaning occurs on a daily basis, or more
often if needed. Ensure that resident-care items, bedside equipment,
and frequently touched surfaces receive daily cleaning and as needed
when visibly soiled.[14] Bag soiled linen and laundry in the residents
room to prevent transmission of MRSA to other residents.
When possible, dedicate non-critical items such as a stethoscope and
other examination tools to a particular resident for the duration of
MRSA illness. Otherwise, immediately disinfect reusable equipment
removed from the room. For more information on cleaning and
disinfection?
http://mqa.dhs.state.tx.us/qmweb/MRSA.htm
?Staphylococcus aureus is a major pathogenic bacterium found in
clinical field and in food industry. Nosocomial infections due to
Staphylococcus aureus create an increasing number of problems, so it
is becoming more and more important to detect Staphylococcus aureus
and in particular, methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA).?
http://www.chromagar.com/products/staphaureus.html
?Staph bacteria and MRSA can spread among people having close contact
with infected people. MRSA is almost always spread by direct physical
contact, and not through the air. Spread may also occur through
indirect contact by touching objects (i.e., towels, sheets, wound
dressings, clothes, workout areas, sports equipment) contaminated by
the infected skin of a person with MRSA or staph bacteria.?
http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/starke/mrsa.html
?Even hands who don't touch patients can spread bacteria around
hospitals. At the annual meeting of the American Society for
Microbiology in Miami Beach, an infectious disease expert says health
care workers who don't deal directly with patients still accumulate a
load of bacteria. That includes bacteria that are resistant to most
antibiotics.?
http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/nosocoml.html#Instruments
?Yet, recent studies and reports indicate that lack of or improper
handwashing still contributes significantly to disease transmission.
While we are all potentially at risk of contracting hand-transmitted
illnesses, one-third of our population is especially vulnerable,
including pregnant women, children, old people, and those with
weakened immune systems.
It seems reasonable to assume that hospitals have come closest to
responding to this problem. Modern surgery, after all, has long since
solved many of the early problems of infection. However, fundamental
problems of hygiene still exist. In 1992, The New England Journal of
Medicine reported on a handwashing study in an intensive-care unit.
Despite special education and monitored observation, handwashing rates
were as low as 30% and never went above 48%!
Nosocomial infections are infections acquired by patients while they
are in the hospital, unrelated to the condition for which the patients
were hospitalized. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
estimates that from 5% to 15% of all hospital patients acquire some
type of nosocomial infection. Hospital personnel can also become
infected. In 1993, 11 health-care workers became ill with hepatitis A
because they didn't wash their hands after treating one of two
patients with hepatitis A?
http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/CC/hand_background.html
a.?Normal flora:
i.These pathogens also tend to become incorporated into the normal
flora of hospital workers
ii.Nosocomially acquired, opportunistic infections thus tend to be both:
1.very available for transmission to patients
2.and not easily treated once infections are under way
· Compromised hosts
a.Broken skin and mucous membranes:
i.Patients tend to be susceptible to infection because they display
broken skin or mucous membranes (wounds).
ii.This is regardless of whether the wounds are acquired in the
hospital or in an accident resulting in their admission to a hospital.
b.Immunodepression:
i.In addition, many patients are immunodepressed .
ii.Thus, their immune systems are less able to fight off infections once acquired.
iii.Again, this is either because of something done to them in the
hospital or for reasons associated with why they entered the hospital.
· Chain of transmission
a.Many sick under one roof:
i.The purpose of a hospital is to gather together the sick and injured
into one place in order to efficiently transmit pathogens to and
between them . . .
ii.Well, not exactly, though there are a number of routes of
transmission that are made much more efficient by the same means that
make it more efficient to treat patients in hospitals, rather than
treating them in their homes.
iii.Particulary, the movement of pathogens from individual to
individual via various routes is referred to as chains of
transmission.
b.A good example of how chains of transmission can get completely out
of hand is childbirth fever during the 19th century. Here doctors
moved between patients without washing hands between. Worse, they
moved between autopsies of individuals who had succumbed from
childbirth fever to birthing women, again without washing hands in
between.
http://www.mansfield.ohio-state.edu/~sabedon/biol2053.htm
==================
What do Staph eat
==================
Well, Staph like to eat what we eat ? especially potato salad!
Seriously, most bacteria can synthesize their own food under the right
conditions - humidity and air are present. Staph on a counter can live
for hours, until they either dry up or get wiped up! Once Staph
invades the body they become parasites, living off a smorgasbord of
human tissue cells.
?Bacteria are single-celled organisms that must be magnified 1000
times in order to be seen clearly. Although bacteria are found
throughout our body as normal flora, when introduced into an abnormal
area, they become pathogenic. Bacteria are controlled by a nucleoid,
which contain a single chromosome of DNA. The cells are composed of a
watery cytoplasm and contain particles that include ribosomes and
mesosomes. Ribosomes synthesize essential proteins for the cell.
Mesosomes handle cellular respiration?changing food to energy. The
cytoplasm is surrounded by a cell membrane, which holds the cell
together and regulates the flow of material into and out of the cell.
The membrane is enclosed by a sturdy cell wall, a rigid structure that
protects the cell and defines its shape. The cells use flagella for
mobility. A byproduct of a bacterium?s metabolism is toxins.3,4
(Figure 1) Bacteria (procaryotic cells) reproduce using binary
fission?the DNA replicates and then the cell divides in two equal
parts.
This process continues as long as nutrients, water and space are
available or until waste products build up to a toxic level (affecting
acidity). E. coli, Vibrio cholerae, Staphylococcus and Streptococcus
all regenerate in about 20 minutes. Temperature, acidity, moisture and
available nutrients can increase or decrease the growth rate of
bacteria.3,4 Bacteria may use oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, sulfur,
phosphorus, nitrogen, or a combination of elements as nutrients.?
http://akiraso.home.mindspring.com/animals/pdfs/ResistantBacteria.pdf
Staph can even live in dust bunnies!
?? the skin & in hair, but in large numbers in the nose, throat,
boils, pimples, cuts, burns & sores, it can also survive in dust &
water, and can grow well on utensils and food after transferring from
hands?
http://www.burwater.co.nz/current.htm
There you go! If this is not the information you were seeking, please
request an Answer Clarification, before rating. This will allow me to
assist you further, if possible.
Sincerely, Crabcakes
Search Terms
============
epidemiology + staph aureus
nosocomial infections
staph aureus + transmission pathways
studies + hand washing + preventing nosocomial infections
staph aureus + nutritional requirements |
Clarification of Answer by
crabcakes-ga
on
19 Jul 2005 10:28 PDT
Hello Kennybob,
Thank you for your clarification. Yes, it would have been very
helpful if you would have provided more details in the first place,
and what you already knew.
First of all, the reason mold does not grow on walls treated with
your product is that you have "disinfected" the wall. The chemical
makes it difficult for molds to find their source of nutrients; sugars
(as in cellulose fibers), minerals and moisture. Molds synthesize
their own food. The fact that 3 species of bacteria did not grow on
the wood samples does not indicate that mold was their food source.It
indicates that the chemical inhibited bacterial growth of these
species. I have found no evidence that bacteria consume mold.
The choice of bacteria used in the "study" is interesting. E.coli,
S.typimurium, and B. subtilis are enteric pathogens, that is, they
live in the intestinal tract, and are spread through oral-fecal
contamination. It is surprising that bacteria were selected and not
mold species. It would seem this test would have used bacteria that
are the primary cause of nosocomial infections, such as Staph
species,serratia species, and Pseudomonas. While e.coli and Salmonella
can be hospital acquired, these organisms are more often foodborne.
Hospital patients acquire bacterial infections from person to person
contact, or contact from contaminated items. These items do not
include walls under paint! It is doubtful that this product could be
used in hospitals. You will need to provide numerous scientific
studies, that have been repeated and approved by OSHA before being
used in hospitals.
You will not like the rest of my answer.
I found many discrepancies (and spelling errors) on the Global
Prevention Services site. I could not locate the Kansas or California
locations.
Dr. Lawrence N. Curcio, PhD., who gave your testimonial, also gave a
similar testimonial for a competing product.
http://www.anabec.com/
I can find NO reference to Certified Environmental Services online.
I can find NO reference to Heidi C. Scott, CEO anywhere online.
The National Science Center is a private company that is helping fund
the Water Control Center of ASU and AU. You can't really say that ASU
conducted the study. It MAY have been done on ASU property, but... you
would need to show more documentation.
?The Water Quality Center (WQC) Lab is located in the Fleischmann
Building of the Environmental Research Laboratory, an off-campus
University of Arizona facility. The Lab focuses on water quality and
is equipped to perform state-of-the-art chemical and biological
analyses. Chemical analyses include metals, salts, alkalinity, anions
and dissolved organic carbon. Biological analyses include bacterial
and viral pathogens and indicator organisms. The Lab also performs
assays on other environmental samples including soils, wastes,
effluents, and plant materials.?
The Water Quality Center has brought together a prestigious group of
researchers within Arizona State University. These interdisciplinary
research groups include biologists, chemists, physicists,
hydrologists, engineers and social scientists who work together to
resolve water quality problems. The National Science Foundation and
other stakeholder companies and agencies supply funding for the
Center. The unique combination of university expertise and funding
from industry and government agencies plays a pivotal role in solving
emerging water quality problems and enhancing quality of life in the
community at large.
http://wqc.asu.edu/
I also find the statement about using this product on 1,500 homes
being built on a remote AFB suspect.
http://www.nomold.com/studies3.html
Since your site redirects readers so often, I checked further. This is
what the site USED to look like, and it appears very different now,
although it is still seems to be owned by Michael Himelfarb.
http://tinyurl.com/eydbl
The link you provided in your clarification request links to your
website, and I wonder if ASU gave permission to cite them on your site
as having performed this study.
All of the above lends an air of unreliability and perhaps even untruths.
I am sorry to provide you with so many negative comments, but Google
will be removing this answer as it is against the terms of service to
advertise your company.
Regards, Crabcakes
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