November 1, 2007

MRSA finally hit close to home last week, when an East Alabama woman died from the staph super bug.

The severe cases getting national attention are starting to scare many people in our area.

But doctors say even though MRSA is highly contagious, there is no need to panic.

“We have meds that are very effective against MRSA, the resistant form, and we continue to do research on new drugs that are effective against MRSA,” said Dr. Joseph Surber, of SERRG, Inc.

When you catch an infection early enough, some doctors may recommend a topical treatment like Staphaseptic Bactericide gel sold in most drug stores.

But for infections that have already taken root in the skin, you need more powerful oral medications.

“There are two or three antibiotics you can get, the problem is there are certain strains that are becoming resistant to the antibiotics available, and that’s because we’ve overused antibiotics,” said Terry Hurly, the owner of Dinglewood Pharmacy.

Patients with the most severe cases of MRSA come here, to the Southeast Regional Research Group on Armour Road in Columbus.

Dr. Surber and others test new antibiotics and IV therapies, trying to stay one step ahead of the drug resistant bug.

He says with all the new treatments, catching MRSA is by no means a death sentence.

“If it is a serious infection, you can die from it, but these are usually people who have medical problems, their immune system isn’t functioning, and a normal healthy person has a low risk of dying from a staph infection,” said Dr. Surber.

Dr. Surber says about 90% of the patients who come to him have the MRSA strain of staph.

More and more of them are not responding to traditional oral antibiotics.

But IV infusion treatments continue to produce a high success rate.

All of his patients beat the infection, and most cases clear up in about a week.