The usual hygiene recommendations for handling food and animals apply to protection against MRSA colonization. Hands should be washed thoroughly with soap and water after contact with animals and before and after preparation of raw meat. In addition, one should avoid touching animals and raw meat with the mouth.
What foods are safe to eat?
Basically, all heat-treated foods such as pasteurized milk, roasted or cooked meat are safe. However, foods should not be re-contaminated after heat treatment.
Protective measures in the clinic
If an infection with MRSA is detected in a clinic, the patient is always isolated. For hospital staff, hands are disinfected after each contact, and protective masks and gowns are mandatory, as this is the only way to prevent spread to other sick people. Visitors, on the other hand, who are healthy have nothing to fear, because transmission is by contact, rarely by droplets.
A leaflet on hospital hygiene at the University Hospital in Cologne explains further measures. For example, the patients’ nasal cavities are treated with mupirocin ointment to eliminate MRSA colonization of the nose. If the detected MRSA strain is also resistant to mupirocin, hospital hygiene should be contacted immediately. In hospital jargon, further “sanitation” measures are then determined in collaboration with hospital hygiene and others.
Treatment of MRSA
There are so-called reserve antibiotics that can be used to treat MRSA. After treatment, swabs are taken on three days from both nasal vestibules, the perianal region, and from any sites where MRSA has been previously detected, as well as from open wounds or conspicuously changed areas of skin.
If all swabs are MRSA-free, the patient can be discharged from isolation. A patient can be discharged home even if MRSA has been detected, if family members have no risk factors and the primary care physician provides continued care.
MRSA in animals
As for transmission from animals to humans, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) writes that people who have frequent contact with pigs because of their occupation also have a higher risk of MRSA colonizing them. Cases of illness with skin and wound infections or respiratory diseases with MRSA originating from the animal have been observed only rarely.
“Pets such as dogs and cats are at increased risk of colonization when they need to be treated in veterinary clinics. The same factors are at work here as with humans in hospitals: Where many animals with different diseases meet, the infection pressure is high. Germs that are insensitive to commonly used antibiotics have an advantage over sensitive germs and can thus colonize more animals and possibly make them sick.”
