MRSA Action

October is World MRSA Awareness Month

October is World MRSA Awareness Month

MRSA Action UK will attend the Infection Prevention Society Annual Conference in Glasgow again this year, and will have a stand with leaflets and information and will be asking everyone to recognise World MRSA Awareness Month and take our message back to their healthcare facilities.

MRSA activists, including MRSA Survivors Network in the USA and MRSA Action UK, continue to call for world unity from governments, the healthcare industry and the community for a greater response to MRSA and other resistant pathogens.

October 2nd 1960 was the day when Professor Patricia Jevons first observed Staphylococcus aureus that was resistant to the antibiotic Meticillin. This new drug, also known as the chemical compound BRL 1241, had been published in the British Medical Journal as a suitable alternative to Penicillin for resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus just a month beforehand (September 3rd 1960). There was some caution reserved in the publication with resistance being shown in lower doses of the drug. Shortly after in February 1961 the British Medical Journal cited Professor Jevons observation of the resistant pathogen that we now know as MRSA. It soon became endemic in UK hospitals and around the world.

There are many organisms that cause infections, but Staphylococcus aureus (Staph) will always be with us causing significant health issues if we don't respect it's presence as part of our normal skin flora. Jeanine Thomas, founder of MRSA Survivors Network in the USA has taken part in high profile events and campaigns to highlight the importance of tackling the problem. She was invited to be on the White House conference call for President Obama's announcement on reducing infections and tackling antimicrobial resistance this month. We are pleased to see that the USA is joining the need for a global response to the emerging threats from antimicrobial resistance and untreatable infections.

Whilst the incidence of untreatable infections are relatively small at present, you cannot help but wonder if these resistant bacteria spread as MRSA did over the last 25 years, then we could soon be witnessing the end of modern medicine as we know it.

 


Derek Butler
Chair
MRSA Action UK
derek.butler@mrsaactionuk.net
http://mrsaactionuk.net
Tel: 07762 741114