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Doctor: Superbug MRSA can be beat
Superbug MRSA is not the plague and can be crushed with five different drug regimens if recognized and treated in time, a top expert in killer germs said Friday.
"Otherwise it produces toxins that can be lethal, causing a multisystem disorder shutting down the kidneys, the heart, the lungs, and it can cause a blood infection," said Dr. Philip Tierno, director of clinical microbiology and immunology at New York University Medical Center.
Even when MRSA proves fatal, it takes at least several days to kill, he said. "There's no exact number of days that's typical [in fatalities] because it does linger awhile," he said.
MRSA is easily recognizable as boils, cuts, abrasions or other lesions that produce pus.
There are two distinctly different types of MRSA: one acquired in hospital settings and the second, more virulent, called CA (community acquired) MRSA, he said. Health officials have not said which strain killed Brooklyn seventh-grader Omar Rivera.
Both types are forms of the staph infection methicillin-resistent staphylococcus aureus, and their incidence has sharply increased both nationally and in New York over the past decade. Hospital-acquired MRSA generally affects older people or those who have had surgery and pick it up through direct or indirect contact.
The CA form is more virulent, usually infects younger people, is highly invasive, and possesses a special killer enzyme, Panton-Valentine leukocidin, Tierno said.
Both strains are immune to penicillin and other conventionally prescribed antibiotics because of the "overprescription" of those drugs over the past 30 years, he said.
"So MRSA developed as drug-resistant," Tierno said.
Hospital-acquired MRSA is treatable with the antibiotics Vancomycin and Daptomycin, which are given intravenously, he said. Community-acquired MRSA can be treated with Doxycycline and Rifampin, SulfaTrimethroprim and Refampin, and Linezoid, all taken orally.
"Linezoid is very expensive and costs $650 per dose," said Tierno. "The drugs kill the [staph] bacteria and prevent the toxins from growing."
The doctor's recipe for avoiding infection, transmitted often through sweat, is simple.
"Don't share anything: helmets, towels, razors, uniforms in an athletic situation," he said. "Wash your hands. Put peroxide on cuts and then apply a disinfectant like iodine. Cover wounds. See a doctor right away if any lesion is producing pus."