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Today’s newsletter is about how to fix Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA).
And we’ll talk about what the docs don’t tell you about MRSA.
First, what is MRSA?
MRSA is bad stuff.
It’s is a strain of staph bacteria that is resistant to the antibiotics normally used to treat such infections.
Doctors used to treat MRSA infections with penicillin.
But thanks to overuse of penicillin, the bacteria evolved and became resistant to the penicillin.
When this happened, doctors started using Methicillin to treat these staph infections.
After a while, MRSA became resistant to the whole class of penicillin-like antibiotics.
If you hear a doctor talk about it, they’re probably calling them beta-lactams.
These antibiotics include amoxicillin, oxacillin, dicloxacillin and many others.
And this resistance makes it difficult to treat a truly nasty infection.
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MRSA symptoms can cause a whole host of different issues from local infections with pus to pneumonia.
It causes an intestinal inflammatory disease called pseudomembranous colitis.
MRSA can cause inflammation and swelling of the heart and lungs.
AND, it can even cause general systemic infections like sepsis and bacteremia.
With a list like that, you want an effective treatment.
About 2 percent of the world’s population carry MRSA on their bodies.
Usually, it does no harm — but when the infection enters the body, many people become very sick.
MRSA usually starts as a small bump that resembles an insect bite.
These can quickly grow and become painful boils that need to be lanced and drained in a sterile setting.
When the bacteria settle deeper, they can cause infections throughout the bloodstream.
They infect the heart, bones, joints, lungs and surgical wounds.
This widespread infection can cause fevers and even death.
Today, Vancomycin is frequently the antibiotic of first choice in MRSA treatment.
But it’s far from a miracle cure, and it’s suffering the same fate as penicillin.
The usual doses of Vancomycin often fail to treat MRSA effectively.
And since the MRSA sometimes survives the treatments, the bacteria are becoming resistant to it.
So Vancomycin dosing creeps higher and higher to fight the bacteria harder.
While the increased dose often successfully treats the infection, but it has a dangerous side effect.
These higher doses lead to nephrotoxicity, also known as kidney failure.
We know that our kidneys filter waste products from the blood.
All the waste and excess fluid build up and overwhelm the kidneys — this is what causes kidney failure.
And since we rely on our kidneys to remove toxic waste products from our blood, kidney failure can have deadly consequences.
The wastes and toxins build up and cause very serious, life-threatening illnesses.
Sometimes it’s possible to reverse Vancomycin-induced kidney failure if the doctors find the problem early enough.
Treatment has to begin as soon as they discover the condition.
And they immediately need to lower or even suspend Vancomycin dosages.
But many cases of kidney failure caused by too high doses of this antibiotic are NOT reversible.
Patients have had permanent damage — including the need for kidney dialysis or kidney transplant.
But some have even died!
This study reported on patients treated for the MRSA infections with the conventional dose of Vancomycin.
It found that between 10% and 20% of the patients suffered kidney failure on the usual dose.
But when you look at the patients treated with higher doses, the results are much worse.
Between 30% to 40 percent of patients treated with the higher doses of Vancomycin suffered kidney failure!
The dangers of Vancomycin are well-known in the medical community.
But, despite the dangers Vancomycin is still the antibiotic chosen over others for the treatment of MRSA.
The reason for this has very little to do with what is best for the patient.
It is all about MONEY.
Vancomycin did not have much competition when it first became available for clinical use 60 years ago.
But times have changed, and since then, more effective, much safer treatments have become available.
The alternatives may cost more, but they are as effective or better than Vancomycin, and they are gentler on the kidneys.
Vancomycin is pushed on patients despite its dangers because IT IS CHEAPER than other antibiotics that treat the same infections!
The authors found that doctors, pharmacists, employees of hospitals, insurance companies, HMOs, and so on still encourage using it.
They encourage the use of Vancomycin because of its relatively low cost.
Compared to the alternative, safer therapies such as Daptomycin, Linezolid, Telavancin, and others, Vancomycin is cheap!
Higher profits for the hospital mean a higher bottom line for the individual’s employer.
And higher profits mean BIGGER BONUSES when bonus time comes around.
But these higher profits all come at the cost of your safety and well-being.
http://aac.asm.org/content/57/5/2435.short
Vancomycin-induced nephrotoxicity: mechanism, incidence, risk factors and special populations. A literature review
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00228-012-1259-9
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