MRSA contained on Vinalhaven
1/30/10 | 3 comments

MRSA contained on Vinalhaven


About a dozen island residents were affected by the severe infection
By Meg Haskell
BDN Staff

VINALHAVEN, Maine — Maine’s top public health official says a late-summer outbreak of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, in this island community has run its course.

Dr. Dora Anne Mills of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier this week that the MRSA outbreak that started in July was contained primarily within the lobstering community on the island. While MRSA is always serious, she said, the cases on Vinalhaven were confined to skin rashes and minor infections and not life-threatening. About a dozen people were affected, she said.

Island resident and lobsterman Tobin Seawell, 40, said this week that a small pimple on his forearm spread rapidly into a nasty infection.

“I literally saw it happen before my eyes,” he recalled. After he popped the pustule, Seawell said, it took about two hours for his whole arm to become inflamed and tender.

“My whole arm turned red to the elbow,” he said. “It turned really hard; I couldn’t push in on the flesh.”

After seeking help at the island’s health center, Seawell was sent to the mainland for intravenous antibiotic treatment at Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockport.

MRSA is gaining notoriety as a severe, invasive infection that can affect internal systems such as the lungs and urinary tract. Especially when it affects patients with weakened immune systems in health care settings such as hospitals and nursing homes, MRSA is easily passed from person to person and can be deadly.

But as a skin infection in a close-knit but relatively healthy population such as the fishing community on Vinalhaven, Mills said, MRSA is nothing new. The state has seen numerous small-scale outbreaks of MRSA over the past decade or longer in school locker rooms and other settings where people have close contact and may share certain types of equipment, she said.

“These are pretty common types of outbreaks,” she said. “The bottom line is, this is an example of the importance of good hygiene.” The MRSA outbreak on Vinalhaven is believed to have started with one individual and spread person to person, Mills said, and is unlikely to have been associated with lobster bait, as some have suggested.

The Maine CDC worked closely with the Islands Medical Center on Vinalhaven to help the fishing community respond to the MRSA outbreak, including posting information on bulletin boards and in the island newspaper and sending fliers home in lobstermen’s paychecks.

Dinah Moyer, executive director of the Islands Medical Center, said people were reminded to wash their hands and shower frequently, to change their clothes and launder them daily, and not to share personal equipment like gloves.

“It was basic common-sense stuff,” she said. Moyer said the community responded appropriately. “People were aware of the problem, but there was no kind of panic,” she said.

“As far as I know, it’s died down now,” Moyer said Friday. “I don’t think we’ve seen any new cases in a few weeks.”

Not registered? Click here
E-mail this
Print this
Guidelines for posting on bangordailynews.com

Bangordailynews.com is pleased to offer a forum for readers to react to our stories, discuss them and provide additional information. We are reluctant to delete comments, but do reserve that right for those who abuse our forum. For more on using this site, please see our terms of service.

The primary rule here is pretty simple: Treat others with the same respect you'd want for yourself. What does that mean specifically? Here are some guidelines (see more):

Comments
3 comments on this item
On 1/30/10 at 10:10 AM, mcrafty1 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I blame it on the windmills.

Report abuse
On 1/30/10 at 4:00 PM, kday49 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

As far as i know, windmills do not cause MRSA, but it's an interesting thought!

I was happy to hear that the outbreak of MRSA on Vinalhaven is controlled. But, a larger number of the Vinalhaven population is now colonized and the one or two dozen (according to a prior article I read) who had active infections will most likely have repeated bouts of their skin infections.

I know it is unwise to incite panic or to alarm people too much. But a bit of panic about something like MRSA is good. I makes them welcome education about the subject. I am confident the Maine CDC educated the victims about how to avoid spread of the infection in their families. That is very important. It is also important for those families to know that they now may be colonized if they live in the same household or share the same living quarters with an infected victim. Unless they become gravely ill or have to enter the hospital for invasive procedures, colonization with MRSA generally will not cause a problem. But if either of those two things occur, it is very important to let your healthcare provider know (that you have had MRSA or have had close exposure to it) and insist on a nasal screening for MRSA. If you are colonized you can be treated for it and avoid serious active infeciton with MRSA.

That is what the new screening in all of our hospitals is being done for. It is to detect MRSA colonization in patient who are entering the hospitals. We wanted to include former MRSA patients and caregivers of those patients in the groups for screening, but that population was not included in this round of screening at our hospitals. My opinion is that was a big mistake.

Within the next few months Maine State Nurses Association, Adam Goode, Representative of Bangor, MRSA victims and others will go before the Health and Human SErvices committee in Augusta to discuss this important step in MRSA prevention, MRSA screening. We would welcome ANY victims of the infection to come and tell us about their personal experience with the infection. The stories of these victims are what drives home the importance of screening and ohter steps in our hospitals to stop the spread of the infection.

If anyone is interested in testifying about their MRSA, please contact me at Kathydayrn@aol.com.

I am glad the worst of the infections is over for the citizens of Vinalhaven.

Kathy Day RN

http://mcclearymrsaprevention.com/

Report abuse
On 1/30/10 at 6:20 PM, michaelmacarthur wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

The following is a partial list of who/what is to blame for MRSA : Bush,Obama, Windmills, solar power, Republicans.Democrats, Cheney, Biden, the rich.the poor. Yup that aught to just about do it for now.

MRSA is definately an important issue. Karen is so correct in her statements

Something to think about that is just my opinion, the overuse of antibiotics over the years when they aren't warranted but the doctors prescribe them anyway to avoid lawsuits and the like. Also the overuse of antimicrobial hand soaps at home because god forbid little Jonny or Jane gets any dirt on them while playing outdoors. If they are even allowed to be outdoors. We as a society have wrapped ourselves up so tight to try and protect ourselves it is now having the opposite effect.

Report abuse
You must be logged in to post a comment. click here to log in.

Powered by: Creative Circle Advertising Solutions, Inc.