Rebecca Fox: Sending children back to school can be a relief for parents but also a cause for concern as they bring back not only homework but germs. The MRSA infection in particular continuous to make headlines but just how could lead the risks to your child and there is anything you can do to prevent the spread of this so called Super Bug. To help us answer those questions ICYou’s Medical Editor Dr. P. Mona Khonna joined us now. Dr. Mona let’s start with the basics, what is MRSA?
Dr. P. Mona Khanna: Oh! Let’s be very clear Rebecca, when we say super bug it’s not super because it’s good it’s actually super because it’s bad. MRSA stands for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and these staph bacteria are present on the skin of most people specially the nose of the 30% of people. So, it normally is around us without causing any problems, unfortunately this particular type of staph bacteria is resistant to most antibiotics and that’s where I get the term super bug it has to be treated differently.
Rebecca Fox: What are the MRSA signs and symptoms?
Dr. P. Mona Khanna: Well it generally shows up as a skin infection, now it can affect any part of the skin. Take a look at to this video that we have and you will see that food on the right, let’s take to look at that big toe. You will see how swelling it is, it’s more red and inflamed, the skin is very tight almost as if there are some puss or some liquid underneath it and that is a skin infection we call this Cellulitis. Now, we don’t know whether or not this particular the one is affected by MRSA could be any other bug but this is what MRSA skin infection can look like. So, it can look like a soar, a boil or any other type of skin infection and this is the perfectly example also of how the MRSA skin infection can happen anywhere. It’s typically been publicized this happening on more expose areas of the body’s such as the arms, and the legs but here we go we have the skin infection of the toe which is also where it could possibly had.
Rebecca Fox: Well that brings us to the next questions, how great is the risks to children when we hear about children in schools or children, athletes the school setting, what’s the risks?
Dr. P. Mona Khanna: Well here are the five risks factors we call them the 5 C of developing MRSA. These are the things to watch out for, crowding, a lack of cleanliness, contamination, compromise skin and contact. Now, what I want to do is want it to talk about contact because this is the bacteria that is transferred from person to person it’s a skin to skin transfer. And so, children or more likely than not athletes that are most at risks for developing MRSA skin infections are going to be athletes contact sports. We are talking about football and rugby and soccer and basketball because that’s have a bacteria can be transfer from one persons skin to another persons skin.
Rebecca Fox: How is that treated and what’s the prognosis?
Dr. P. Mona Khanna: Okay well, there are two arms of treatment the first is of course if you have a skin infection you need to get it evaluated by your physician. If common routine antibiotics don’t work which is really the route we usually go because most skin infections are treated with routine antibiotics, if that’s doesn’t work then you may need to be treated by super antibiotics to treat this super bug that’s the first thing. So pay close attention if you have a skin infection you are getting it treated and make sure it’s progressing. The second is what you can do at home, and here is what you need to do. You don’t need to abstained from the sport you just need to make sure that, that particular part of the skin is covered where all the personal protective equipment that you usually wear when you put just pay on this sport. And the very last arm of that is wash your hands frequently and you know we unknowingly are always touching our body’s whether were pushing back a lack of hear or scratching it in itch and so always, always, always make sure frequent hand washing is part of any treatment plan when it comes to any kind of infection.
So for parents, parents need to talk with the child about what to do and what not to do in the school setting and in gym setting. Right exactly, you can do what the doctors tells you to do which just going to be take your antibiotics, make sure it’s covered but then in the school setting you want to prevent the transmission of this infection that you might have to someone else. So you want to practice good hygiene and do exactly what the doctors said when they said make sure about the area of the skin is covered. You don’t need to abstained from this sport like I said, that’s okay as long as it okay with your coach but make sure that what you want to do is minimize the risks of transferring it to someone else.
Rebecca Fox: Some of important information, thank you Dr. Mona we certainly appreciate it. And you can watch more videos between Dr. Mona on icyou.com for us you on topic, I’m Rebecca Fox.
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