A study appearing in the Archives of Otalaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery reveals that rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcos aureus, of MRSA, are rising in US children, especially those involving the ear, nose, throat or sinuses.
MRSA is an extremely dangerous disease that knows no color, sex or race. There are two main types of MRSA. The hospital-acquired MRSA, which is responsible for nosocomial infections, is much more dangerous because it is resistant to most antibiotics. The community-acquired MRSA usually is caused in the United States by a strain designated ST8:USA300. This type of infection is more virulent but a lot easier to treat, and in many cases antibiotics are not required. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agrees that MRSA is more prevalent and potentially more serious when acquired in a hospital than when contracted outside, in the community. That is because people in a hospital are sicker.
According to the new study led by Dr. Steven Sobol of Emory University, “the emergence of resistant staph head and neck infections in pediatric settings is on the rise.” The researchers analyzed data on pediatric infections that had been collected between 2001 and 2006 in a national database that keeps test results from labs working for more than 300 hospitals across the nation.
The study found that of more than 21,000 infections occurring among children during the study period, almost 22 percent were resistant to the antibiotic methicillin. MRSA head and neck infection rates had more than doubled, from about 12 percent to just over 28 percent.
Also, almost 60 percent of all MRSA infections of the head and neck were acquired outside hospitals. Most were in children’s ear.
Despite the rising rates of MRSA infection, Dr. Sobol said the risk to children is not yet cause for alarm.
“I don’t want to generate panic. And really, there’s no reason for parents and children to change their lives.”
On the other hand, they should reduce risk for infection and practice normal hygiene measures, such as encouraging children to wash their hands and avoid contact with other ill children in crowded situations. Some hospitals, gyms and other public facilities have already introduced prevention actions against the spreading of the bacteria such as more thorough scrubbing of equipment, using hotter water for laundry, banning towel sharing and increasing the use of disinfectants.
Also, Dr. Sobol encourages doctors to be cautious when children come with different infections that do not normally respond to treatment and parents to look for professional help in treating their children.
Trying to explain what exactly has led to this rise in MRSA infections, Dr. Sobol said it could be that the doctors “might be less cautious in their use of antibiotics when it comes to children,” or simply because the US health care system is better at monitoring case trends than it had been in the past “and so we're finding it in greater numbers among children than before.”
