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MRSA, Public Health and Public Safety

2007 Oct 25 Posted by Charles

Joy, you highlighted an important issue that intersects the domains of public health and public safety with your comments to Joe on the MRSA super bug. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) this bacterium may be responsible for more annual deaths in the U.S. than AIDS.

I believe that a widespread outbreak with numerous fatalities could likely have the potential for panic and disruptions in our society. Yet the CDC advocates the commonsensical and time-proven tactic of frequent hand washing to help reduce the risk against all types of bugs and microbes. Apparently alcohol wipes are proving effective as well.

I believe that it is important for public health and public safety to continue to look for ways to better inform the public on this issue along with suggestions for education, monitoring and prevention. In my view it will be infinitely better to keep events such as MRSA controlled and learn from our experiences toward shared best practices in the event of a large scale natural or man-made event.

Charles

October 25, 2007 | Filed under: Uncategorized
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3 Responses to “MRSA, Public Health and Public Safety”

Jeff Turney Says:

Dr. Tiffin and Dr. Pascarella,

First let me thank you for establishing this site to discuss trends, topics,and events occuring within the Public Safety field. I am new to the site, but will be checking it regularly from now on.

You are right, the MRSA Superbug is becoming a very important safety topic for all of us in Public Safety. I work for the Glendale Police department in Arizona. Our city shares a border with Phoenix, Arizona and has a population of approximately 250,000. We have had at least 17 officers contract this “infection” over the past year alone. It seems to be prevalant in the homeless arena and with the methamphetamine addicts living in “flop” homes. Many of the individuals contracting this infection do not have medical insurance to get treatment, therefore the infection spreads quickly throughout their community. Our officers working the street and our detention personnel are on the front lines fighting this bacteria. Our department has provided briefings on how to stay safe, but in the end it is hard to fight something you can not see. Our education system recently took a big hit when the bug killed a student and clean-up crews had to go in and sanitize the entire school. A few more cases like that and parents are going to start questioning the safety of their children in the school system. I’m afraid we had not seen the end of this bug and the death toll will climb if we do not get treatment for those who need it. We may need to start offering free treatment in the interest of Public Health.

Jeff Turney

October 31st, 2007 at 8:15 am

Charles Says:

Hello Jeff, this sounds like it has been a very difficult situation for all involved. Please extend my regards to any of your colleagues and their families who are still sick. Also my condolences certainly go out to the family who experienced the loss in the school system.

I agree with you that this is a very significant issue for public safety and public health; I believe that it is public safety (as first responders) at high risk due to the nature of the job exposure. I hope that this issue will soon take a more center stage as part of our public safety and public health discussions. Unfortunately we only read about these events when they are a mass illness, school shutdown or worse with a fatality.

I believe that it would be great to have the media offering preventive best practices, early detection tips and any other suggestions from the CDC that might help avert infection. This might cause a bit of apprehension in some communities, but it would pale in comparison to what we might experience with a widespread infection or MRSA pandemic.

Thanks for stopping by and for your comment.

Take care,
Charles

November 2nd, 2007 at 8:36 am

Joy Says:

“We have had at least 17 officers contract this “infection” over the past year alone.”

Wow, Jeff. I had no idea that this was such a problem. Do you think the public is being adequately informed regarding this?

“Our department has provided briefings on how to stay safe, but in the end it is hard to fight something you can not see.”

Perhaps something more than briefings is required. What are the steps one needs to take to stay safe?

Thank you for adding to this important topic, Jeff.

November 8th, 2007 at 10:40 am

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