Dear Valued OSAP Members and Friends:
The major television networks are talking about it.
Magazines and newspapers are talking about it including The Economist, Wired and the Harvard Business Review.
It's all over the Internet.
The World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and governments around the world are taking an active interest in it. In fact, last week the US Senate passed an amendment that means the Agency for Health Research Quality has $5 million to identify and suppress the spread of it.
According to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association it caused 94,000 serious infections and nearly 19,000 deaths in 2005 and most of those were in hospitals.
What is it and should we in the dental profession be concerned?
The "it" is MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), a bacteria which is resistant to some antibiotics but not all drugs. Health experts say MRSA is a version of an everyday bacteria that causes pimples, boils, sinus infection and, in rare cases, meningitis and blood infections; MRSA is resistant to Methicillin.
Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, an epidemiologist at CDC, says while it is understandable that people are concerned, it must be emphasized that MRSA is a common cause of skin infection and almost all of these infections are readily treated by commonly available antibiotics and by draining the lesions. Dr. Srinivasan says that hand hygiene is by far the best means to prevent the spread of all diseases. Experts say the key to dealing with MRSA is early diagnosis and then the completion of a full course of antibiotic treatment. The public needs to watch for wounds that do not heal and are not helped with normal antibiotic treatment.
In dentistry, two recent studies explore the possibility of aerosols and spatter generated during dental treatment spreading MRSA.
OSAP has developed a MRSA page on its website at www.OSAP.org (go to Resources — click on fly out menu, then "MRSA"). The direct link is: OSAP.org.
This site will be constantly updated to ensure dental professionals have the information and resources necessary to ensure the safety of their patients and themselves against MRSA.
The OSAP website also has a multitude of other resources, training aids, educational programs and a "YouTube"-type of compliance contest…all designed to help increase the safety of dental settings throughout the world.
Please forward this email to your colleagues and others who may be interested in this important resource.
Thanks for your support of OSAP, dentistry's resource for infection control and safety.
Appreciatively yours,
Therese M. Long, MBA, CAE
Executive Director
Organization for Safety & Asepsis Procedures (OSAP)
