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[Health Topic]

Protect your family from Superbug

This week's sad news of the Virginia teen who died of the a bacterial infection called MRSA or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, the 'Superbug' as it has been called, highlights two important health facts we have to face:

1. we have to wash our hands more in all environments
2. we have to be very, very careful about when we give ourselves and our kids antibiotics

MRSA gets its name because it is resistant to normal antibiotics such as penicillin. Once a hospital problem, this infection has now spread into our communities and is becoming more common. And, the amount of infections predicted is soon to rival AIDS which I personally find very frightening.

Even more frightening for me as a physician is to think back to the very roots of my medical education and training here in Boston where I first learned about MRSA, way back in the late 1980's and early 1990's. I recall vividly those lectures and patient rounds. I recall the predictions and warnings about antibiotics use and the concerns of the "potential development of a 'superbug'". Back then, the MRSA patients I saw with MRSA were all hospitalized and all the outbreaks confined to the wards. A very different story from what we are experiencing today. And, today, the risk is far from "potential". We are actually looking that 'Superbug' in the eye and with little to fight it except perhaps for the hope that one day we'll have a vaccine, which historically seems to be our only savior from these impossible to treat infections.

Until that day, we have to be very smart about our outside environments and inside environments. We have to keep our schools and public spaces such as gyms as clean as possible, and keep our bodies free of antibiotics they don't need.

So, parents, please do not demand antibiotics if your pediatrician tells you the infection your child has does not need one. The days of "just in case" antibiotics should have ended a long time ago and today we are paying a huge price for that. The day has arrived where doctors have to step up and be doctors - and give the antibiotics only when truly indicated. And, the day has arrived where parents have to recognized that they are not doctors and no amount of reading or information can replace a medical education. The lines have been blurred for a while but this week's headlines have but all that back in focus - at least for me. MORE INFO>>>

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