Scary

[calngavinsmom]

How scary is this?
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2.../emw301604.htm

Yet another reason to just say NO!

Take care,
Tara

[Lula's Mom]

Oh my God. That's horrible.

[PuppyFluffer]

It's very scary but pretty obvious to me as well. If you want to avoid infection, you need to avoid wounds.

[Frankly Speaking]

I've been expecting this for quite some time. Up until recently, MRSA has been confined to medical facilities where it has been a substantial problem. This pathogen is resistant to all known antibiotics and can kill. With careful attention to procedures, the risk has been mostly managed but in the past couple of months, it has been reported that MRSA has escaped to the environment outside medical facilities. This is a clear and present danger and can result in death. It enters the body through wounds or breaks in the skin. A newborn's circumcision site is an excellent and easy entry point.

I have told this story before but it's worth repeating. I read about it some years ago. There was a hospital that was having an extremely high number of staph infections in their post surgical patients. They tightened up their procedures to no avail. They then decided that the source was somewhere in the operating rooms and they had to go to extraordinary lengths to get rid of it. Everything was moved out of the operating rooms and everything that could be cleaned was cleaned and disinfected thoroughly and in detail. If it could be disassembled, it was and reassembled and returned to the OR. Anything that could not be washed was discarded. The walls, floor and ceilings of the ORs were cleaned and disinfected. After all of that, the infections continued unabated just as before. The hospital closed down their operating rooms, sent their surgical patients to other hospitals and called in a consultant. It was finally discovered that the staph was living in the disinfectant and all of the cleaning and disinfecting simply spread it around again. This just illustrates how tough and resistant this pathogen is. It is definitely something to be feared. It is closely related to the infamous "Flesh-eating bacteria."

There are so many ways that a baby could be infected. From the medical personnel, equipment or supplies during delivery, while in the nursery, during the circumcsion procedure or from a mother who became infected while in the medical facility and passes it on to her son. Babies with no open wounds will usually resist infection but boys with a circumcision wound are literally sitting ducks.

I immediately suspected MRSA as the pathogen that killed the Edmondton, Alberta boy last year.

Maybe this will bring neonatal circumcision to an end.



Frank

[njeb]

This sounds like a good reason to avoid not only circumcision, but hospital births as well. Maybe home birth will start to make sense to more and more people.

[colaga]

The MRSA, it's quite a problem here in the British hospitals. People catch it here all the time, old people, newborns, any patients going in for routine procedures..

[aira]

90% of circs are not necessary?! That means they are saying that 10% are??

Seems off to me.

But great that they made a press release about it! I got staph infections in my nipples while in the hospital. They were wounded due to DS's inability to latch and got infected before we even got home. I can only suppose that a nurse's hands transmitted it to me while she was "checking". Scary is right.

[Quirky]

Someone didn't proofread that press release carefully enough...MRSA is a bacterium, not a virus.

[Frankly Speaking]

I noticed that too Jane but didn't mention it. I suspect most people don't know the difference.



Frank

[Quirky]

That may be, but it undermines the credibility of the press release in the eyes of doctors and medical professionals who certainly would know the difference.

I emailed George Hill about it - I hope it gets corrected.

[LeosMama]

This give me more ammo when my MD father in law asks me why I'm having a homebirth next time and why my son is intact.

MRSA is something he'll understand.

Maybe what I need to do with him is sweetly request that he do some reseach into current journals for me regarding risks and benefits of circ, of hospital births, episiotomies, etc. When he's confronted by the medical evidence, rather than just relying on his store of medical folk lore, maybe he'll come around.

[AntoninBeGonin]

Thanks for the link. My FIL is a MD and my MIL is a nurse so I'm going to make sure they read this.

Oh, and I should print an extra copy to go with my Doula info.

~Nay

[Fi.]

90% of circs are not necessary?! That means they are saying that 10% are??

it says 99