Gabriel

I would not take my parents out of their AL facility because I know someone that got MERSA. It is a drug resistent bacterial infection that can be anywhere. It is a mutation of a common bacteria that you can find in any public place. It usually enters through a pre existing injury. It is treatable, and not a death sentence though it is resistent to standard treatment. It needs a definitive diagnosis and agressive treatment. The worse case here came from a high school locker room. Actually there have been more cases out of locker rooms here than hospitals or care facilities.

In hospitals and care facilities they are very strigent about cleanliness and disinfecting. Every caregiver in Mom's facility has hand germ gel clipped to their waist and the use it. They disinfect common areas frequently, including closing down the dinning facility from time to time for a thorough cleaning. Yes, the patient with MERSA has to be somewhere. But the precautions taken are almost extreme if they know they are dealing with MERSA.

So would I take Mom out of an facility because of MERSA? NO! Would you take your son off the football team because a child in another city had a cut on his arm and got MERSA from a locker room that your son was never in? I would check into the disinfecting policy of the facility and monitor the use of disinfectant if MERSA was present in the facility Mom was in.

Yep, it's a scary mutation but just as with some other diseases in the past that we have feared, we need to use common sense and good judgement.

Love, deb