Hi,
I'm almost 22 and my grandfather was admitted into ICU almost 2 weeks ago for CHF. His lungs keep filling up with fluid, he's on a breathing ventilator and not doing well. The doctors just found out a few days ago that he has MRSA which I guess also caused pneumonia. How concerned should I be about having MRSA as well? I was not feeling well during several visits with him. I have visited him 2-3 times a day since he was admitted into ICU never missing a day. I have held his hand, touched his face etc. I went to the doctors the other day because I was not feeling well and had a lot of congestion at the base of my throat, this was just 1 day BEFORE the doctors diagnosed my grandfather as having MRSA so I didnt know at the time I went to the doctors. The doctor said I had a mucous plug at the base of my throat and I guess some kind of an infection and put me on Z-pack and 2 different decongestants. I am still feeling weird and congested and have a bad headache with fever on and off. I also have had Epstein Barr for years so I don't know if that makes a difference with possibly contacting MRSA. Anyways, should I be concerned about having possibly having MRSA?? I keep reading that it's not likely that someone visiting will get it so is there a cause for concern or am I over-reacting??
Thanks for any info!
Lisa

By now you have probably got this under control but the headaches along with the congestion and fevers is consistent with sinus infections/severe sinusitis. We all have MSRA in our bodies it is just not always active. Unless you breathed in any droplets of MRSA from your grandfathers coughing or touched him where he has some discharge so to speak on his hand or cheek and had an open area or a port of entry so to speak I doubt you have active MRSA right now. Also it depends if his MRSA was active at the time or colonized. Hopefully by now your doc has eased your mind for you about all of this though.

We all have MRSA in our bodies all the time? I have to question this. MRSA (methicillin-resistant staph aureus) is a mutant that wasn't observed widely until fairly recently. While S. aureus might be found in normal flora (I don't know this off the top of my head), I'd doubt that MRSA would be.

MRSA is staph bacteria that is resistant and yes it is in your body the same as we all have staph in our body.
In the past, most serious staph bacteria infections were treated with a certain type of antibiotic related to penicillin. Over the past 50 years, treatment of these infections has become more difficult because staph bacteria have become resistant to various antibiotics, including the commonly used penicillin-related antibiotics (1). These resistant bacteria are called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.

I understand that S. aureus is commonly found in humans, and I wasn't trying to argue with that.

However, MRSA is a specific subset of multiply resistant strains of S. aureus. The S. aureus in normal human flora isn't necessarily MRSA.

I understand what you are saying. Both bacteria and viruses are very cleaver and to ensure their survival, they mutate and adapt, so that they are not exactly the same. If this happens, they are then not identifiable to the immune system and if you get infected, then your body has no particular immunity to the disease.

This is what has happened with the SARS virus. This is a mutation of the an ordinary flu virus and that is why is has been so lethal, as due to the mutation, the people who have become infected with it have no immunity to it and with things that are ever changing and ever evolving, it is hard to have the immunity. The immune system develops a specific memory, however if the infecting agent differs very slightly in some way, then the immune system is fooled and the exact antibody to match the invading antigen is not present.

Yes, everyone has staph that colonises their skin and other places within the body, however this staph does not necessarily have to be the type that is resistant to antibiotics.

I suppose it is possible that people are living with the mutated version, however, to my mind, the staph only really becomes a problem when someone has a lowered immunity in the first place and has been treated with the antiotics to try and clear the infection. With however many antiibiotics, the staph will then mutate and become antibiotic resistant, unless the mutated version is there already and in which case we are all carrying this version that will not respond, so we had better all be careful!