My favorite game is hide and seek. I thrive in a variety of environments, but one of my favorite places is a hospital. I can live on hard and soft surfaces, including hand rails, bed side tables, bedding, plastics, clothing items, counters and on people. I can live seven months on dust, eight weeks on a mop head, nine weeks on a cotton towel, 203 days on a blanket and indefinitely on skin.
When I infect a person, I show up as swollen, red bumps on their skin. Sometimes, the abscess can be located deep in the body and result in infections in bones, joints, the blood stream, other wounds, heart valves and even lungs.
To prevent infections, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement recommends thorough hand hygiene, environmental and equipment decontamination, active surveillance, contact precautions for patients infected by the bacteria along with strategies and best practices to prevent transmission through invasive devices like central venous catheter or ventilator.
At NARMC, we take infection control seriously and are dedicated to providing quality care in a clean environment.
Any guesses on what this bacteria is?
Answer: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)