A deadly serious risk
A staph infection can turn fatal fast, and having diabetes means you’re up to seven times more likely to develop the most serious infection. Discover why and, most importantly, what you can do to avoid becoming a statistic
How a staph infection can affect you
“Zachary’s had infections before, but the one that showed up on Christmas Day in 2018 was different,” says Jeanette Wall, Zachary’s mum. Now 14, he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was six and uses an insulin pump to manage it. When Jeanette noticed that a hot and angry looking abscess that had developed at his infusion site was doubling in size every hour, she knew they had to move fast. “He spent eight or nine hours hooked up to wires in hospital, and it took three bags of intravenous antibiotics to get it under control,” says Jeanette, “so we made the right call.”
Jeanette is right. Despite being vigilant about his insulinpump hygiene, Zachary’s infection was caused by staph, a bacteria that has the potential to enter and infect the bloodstream. From there, staph can lead to sepsis, a serious immune response to infection that can be life threatening.
Research shows between 20 per cent and 40 per cent of people who develop a bloodstream infection caused by staph die within a month as it’s notoriously difficult to treat.
And not only does living with diabetes increase the risk of experiencing a staph skin infection like Zachary’s, it also means you’re about three times more likely to develop a staph bloodstream infection. For some people, the risk is even higher: having type 1 diabetes or
diabetes-related complications multiplies the risk of experiencing a potentially fatal blood infection by up to seven times.
BACK TO BASICS
First things first, what is ‘staph’, anyway? Its proper name is staphylococcus and, as you read earlier, it’s a type of bacteria – or more accurately a group of bacteria. “And some staph clones are much more likely to cause infections than others,” says Associate Professor Thomas Gottlieb, a specialist in infectious diseases and microbiology at Sydney’s Concord Hospital.
So, while there are more than 30 different types or clones of staph, it’s one called staphylococcus aureus that causes most of the infections we know as ‘staph infections’.
Despite that, staphylococcus aureus is commonly carried on the skin or in the nose of many healthy people without causing infection. “About one third of people are carriers of the bacteria,” says Associate Professor Gottlieb. “Another third are temporary or shortterm carriers, and the final third never carry it.”
What determines who carries staph aureus and who doesn’t is a complex puzzle, with age, gender, genetics and even where in the world you live thought to play a role, but high blood glucose is a known risk factor. As a result, a 2014 study found as many as one in two people living with diabetes are carriers, which is significantly more than the general population.
A HEAVY LOAD TO CARRY
According to the experts, if you develop a staph infection there’s a good chance the staph bacteria you’ve been carrying around on your body is the culprit. But staph bacteria and infections can also be transmitted from person to person, either by direct contact or via surfaces including clothes and towels.
Either way, if you have a break in the skin, such as a cut or scratch, or a wound such as an ulcer, the staph bacteria can enter and cause a skin infection. “And for people living with diabetes, there’s a greater risk of that local infection spreading elsewhere, where it’s much harder to treat,” says Associate Professor Gottlieb.
It can make the skin wound much harder to treat, too.
In fact, a 2019 study proved if staph sets up camp in a diabetic foot ulcer, healing is much less likely. And considering staph is present in about 60 per cent of all infected diabetic ulcers, it may be one explanation why the overwhelming majority of diabetes-related amputations are preceded by foot sores or ulcers. ➤
Bloodstream
infections caused by staph can sometimes
prove fatal within a month