Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is a bacterium that can cause many types of infections, including severe pneumonia. As the name implies, it is resistant to treatment with the antibiotic methicillin, making it more difficult to treat and thus more dangerous. Dr. John Boyce, writing in the medical reference UpToDate, reports that infection with hospital-acquired MRSA is associated with higher rates of death as well as more complications such as kidney failure. Because MRSA infection is so dangerous, a variety of isolation techniques have been developed to prevent the spread of this disease.
Consistent and Frequent Hand Washing
Washing hands frequently is one of the precautions the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, considers standard. When taking care of a patient with MRSA pneumonia, after contact with any sort of body fluid, the physician or other health care provider should wash hands thoroughly with soap and water. This should be done before contact with the MRSA-infected patient as well as after finishing any contact with the patient, regardless of whether gloves were worn. This simple act, when done consistently, plays a major role in reducing the spread of infection from one patient to another.
Patient Placement
According to the CDC, if MRSA is an especially significant concern within a hospital or other long-term care facility, patient placement should be a high priority. The type of isolation technique is called a contact precaution and is meant to reduce the contact that MRSA-infected patients have with people who are not infected. Specifically, patients who are thought to have MRSA infection--whether pneumonia or another manifestation of infection with this bacteria--should be placed in a room alone. If this is not possible, the CDC recommends placing patients with MRSA in a shared room, so that there is less risk of a patient spreading the infection to patient who does not already have MRSA.
Use of Gloves, Gowns, and Masks
As part of the precautions taken when interacting with a patient with MRSA pneumonia, gloves should be worn whenever the patient's skin is touched. In addition, if the area around the patient will be touched--for instance the bed rails around the patient's hospital bed--gloves should be worn as well.
Gowns are another aspect of MRSA isolation--they are put on whenever the room of the MRSA-infected patient is entered, and taken off before the person leaves the patient's room. As with the gloves, this isolation technique helps prevent the spread of the bacteria throughout the hospital.
Masks are another component to isolating the MRSA--they are worn to prevent the passage of MRSA into the mouth, nose and eyes from the infected patient to the health care provider.
References
- CDC: Precautions to Prevent the Spread of MRSA in Healthcare Settings
- "UpToDate;" Treatment of hospital-acquired, ventilator-associated, and healthcare-associated pneumonia in adults; Thomas File; June 2010
- "UpToDate;" Epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection in adults; John Boyce; June 2010
