Is it safe to be around child that has tested positive for mrsa?

[chocciedooby]

Hi everyone. Just wanted to know if I should avoid contact or not? I am 27 weeks pregnant and not sure if mrsa is a risk for me or not.

I believe most people have the MRSA bacteria on their person somewhere at some time. It is only a risk if it gets into open wounds. Asssuming you're not unwell or suffering from said open wounds you should be fine. Is it your child?

information here

you would have to also avoid all public transport/public places etc to keep away from it to be honest, You might even have it yourself without knowing! Like Northernlurker said its only a problem if you are very ill or it gets into your bones, blood or open wounds

Thank you for your advice and for the link.
I think I am pretty safe but it was just that the childs father had been around to say that I could just send my kids over to visit their sick daughter and I could stay away if I was worried. Thats what got me wondering.

As nurses we continue to nurse MRSA patients throughout our pregnancies, taking universal precautions - handwashing being the single most effective way to minimise cross contamination. MRSA is not airborne (except through coughs & sneezes) and is not dangerous to a healthy person with no wounds. Staying at home and sending your children won't necessarily protect you as your children could easily bring the spores home from contact with the child as well as crockery, cutlery, towels etc and then give to you. 30 per cent of the population carry mrsa as part of their normal flora. If I were deciding whether to let my children go I would want to know where the infected child's mrsa was and how long they had been treated for. hth

geisha 30% of the population have SA not MRSA, but yes, the resistant strain is quite common and lots of us are walking around with it without knowing and without any adverse effects.

Geisha - thanks for your post.
The little girl has been in hospital since New Years Day. She had phneumococcal Pneumonia and Toxic Shock Syndrome. She is clear of all that now and is being brought home for the day. She was tested for mrsa during her hospital stay back in mid Jan and was found to have positive spores (?) and has not yet been cleared of this.

I don't know if she wasa treatred specicifically for mrsa as she was on many drugs with tubes etc. This has all now finished. Do you think it sounds safe?

My view - avoid. In pregnancy your immunity is lowered, why put yourself at risk?

Yes, it's safe. You will only catch MRSA through an open wound. I worked as a Carer and had a needlestick from someone with MRSA whilst pregnant - it was fine, i spoke to doctors, they reassured me.

tbh I think I would steer clear too and wouldn't let my dc go either. Nothing to do with pregnancy but why expose them unecessarily? I think if her mrsa is in a wound that is covered this would be the most acceptable. if it is in her nose, throat, groin or tube sites that are not covered there is greater chance of cross infection. All of that said - as I said beofre mrsa is usually not harmful to healthy people, but why expose yourself unecessarily. It would be better to visit her in hospital where you will be expected to wear gloves and aprons.

To echo others post. Universal precautions are the best thing.

As others have said many people carry this and you would not know it (SA). You could pick it up in a variety of places. (Many hospital MRSA infections are a result of people bringing the infection in to the hospital). The high risk individuals are people with open wounds or reduced immunity. As you don't sound like you fall in to this category you should be ok.

If you are feeling the need to be reassured speak to GP or NHS direct perhaps?

I agree with Geisha, the spores can live a long while and if you ended up having a c section you might still be exposed to them at home.

well ladies; I didn't get a chance to go online today as all a bit hectic. I did go in and visit the little girl next door but I didn't touch her or get too close. She does have sores on her hands and feet but these were covered. All of the neighbours were in with their kids and even some with little babies.
I was only there for 10 minutes and then when I returned home I gave my hands and my kids hands a good scrub. My kids never touched her or went too close either so I'd say all is fine.

Thank you so much for all of your advice

Personally as someone who has worked for a local MRSA support group I would not have gone. I have heard of too many families devastated by this. A child who visited his dad in hospital and ended up with mrsa in a wound in his knee. He was quite young and it was only a graze, half healed at that and now it never will. A new mother who got MRSA in the cs wound and died. I have too many of these people and their stories in my head. For me, to consider going to visit would not be an acceptable risk.

I am not trying to be alarmist, but I have had access to information that most people haven't and seen the effects on families that have been devastating.

personally I would dettox your shoes and wash all clothes that were worn in the room. There are people on here i am sure who would think me ott. But like hand washing it is a simple precaution that could save a lot of heartache in the future.

I agree with Twinkly, I am quite worried about people having visited with young babies, spores aren't visible, they are likely to have been on surfaces in the room - wash everything you were wearing, please, and yes clean your shoes with something containing bleach.

Sorry, superbugs are not something you should mess with

If she was highly contagious why would the hospital have released her for the day knowing that she could affect anyone that she had come into contact with?

Also many other people have posted on here that there is mrsa all around us in the public and we are not even aware of that.

Some may say I was irresponsible visiting and allowing my children to be in the same atmosphere as the child but I am not alone. A 7 month old baby was sitting on the childs knee! That parent did not seem concerned at all. Are we all just very ignorant of the risks? How can we test to se if we are infected?

My sister is a nurse and I also sought her advice before visiting. She worked up until 34 weeks pregnant on a ward that was possibly infected with mrsa and said as long as hands were washed it would be fine.

I haven't called you irresponsible, but yes I think there is a great deal of ignorance even among nurses.

I had c difficile last year, and I have been met with surprise, shock, ignorance and general ignorance among MOST of the nurses and doctors I have since spoken to about it.

You might be fine, you might not, all we are trying to tell you is that there is risk involved in being near a person with active MRSA.

I hope that nobody has been infected but it's impossible to rule it out. All you can do now is keep your fingers crossed, which is why we tried to advise you not to go in the first place.

general bewilderment, that should say.

People in the NHS are not being adequately educated about these bugs.

Totally agree with mandragore. Coming in contact with MRSA in the general course of your day is actually v unlikely SA yes MRSA no.

Its the MR bit that causes the problem - Methicillin Resistant.

The truth about MRSA is very very rarely admitted and when it is people don't generally believe it.

The hospital will have released the girl to the care of her family because the family themeselves will have been assessed as low risk. Taking babies in to see her would not have been reccomended if she were still in hospital and if the babies mother had any idea of the true level of danger she had put her child in she would be having kittens about now.

I also have relatives who have previously worked on wards which have been very positive for MRSA and they had also not been fully informed of the risks.

I am not saying that you have been irresponsible, you made a descision based on a level of risk that you were informed about. Unfortunatley the level of risk in the situation you were in ( several people in one room by the sounds of it enclosed with a MRSA positive patient, recently come from a hospital environment) was several hundred times higher than you were led to believe it would be.

It has been proven in recent years that MRSA can enter the blood stream of young children via inhalation - a wound is not necessary.

Again I would like to say that I am not trying to be alarmist, merely alert to the true risk, but I would now watch your children carefully over the coming weeks and if you have any concerns act and push for a test to be carried out.

I will try to find the correct links for the last batch of info I was sent, I am notoriously poor at adding links but I will try so keep watching over the next couple of days. ( v busy week)

To quote Mandragore:

"People in the NHS are not being adequately educated about these bugs."

< unfortunatly all too true >

"I hope that nobody has been infected but it's impossible to rule it out. All you can do now is keep your fingers crossed, which is why we tried to advise you not to go in the first place."

Be watchful...