Self-cleansing can fend off superbug
Think of it as decontaminating yourself. Hospitalised patients who harbour certain superbugs can cut their risk of developing full-blown infections if they swab medicated goo in their nose and use special soap and mouthwash for six months after going home, a study has found.
About 5 per cent of patients have MRSA – antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria – lurking on their skin or in their noses, putting them at high risk of developing an infection while recovering from an illness or an operation. These can affect the skin, heart, brain, lungs, bones and joints, and most of them land people back in the hospital.
The hygiene steps that US researchers tested trimmed that risk by nearly one third.
‘‘It’s a very simple solution. You don’t have to swallow a medicine, you just have to clean the outside of your body for a little while longer,’’ said Dr Susan Huang of the University of California Irvine School of Medicine. She led the federally funded study, published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study involved more than 2000 patients at hospitals in southern California who were found to carry MRSA, or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus bacteria. All were given information on ways to avoid infection, and half also got special products – mouthwash, liquid soap containing an antiseptic, and an antibiotic ointment to swab in the nose. They were told to use these Monday to Friday, every other week for six months.
A year later, 6 per cent of those in the deep-clean group had developed a MRSA infection, compared with 9 per cent of the others. They also had fewer infections from other germs.
Doctors estimated that 25 to 30 people would need to be treated to prevent one case.
Heather Avizius was one. The 41-year-old nanny has had MRSA infections in the past, and entered the study after severe complications of Crohn’s disease landed
‘‘I felt cleaner and safer.’’ Heather Avizius, MRSA patient
her in hospital eight years ago.
‘‘I took the regimen very, very seriously’’ and she had not had MRSA since, she said. ‘‘I felt cleaner and safer.’’
The antiseptic soap was a 4 per cent chlorhexidine solution sold in many drugstores. Other soaps, even ones labelled antibacterial, ‘‘may not have the active ingredients to remove MRSA’’, said Dr Robert Weinstein, another study leader and an infections specialist at Cook County Health and Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago.