Tampa Bay Bucs diagnosed with MRSA

[supafly]

Yes, according to the HIPAA rules.

So just out of curiosity, why can they divulge the information regarding other injuries or situations; and why do we constantly hear about other teams involvement with staph etc?

 

[deters]

Hearing this confirms my suspicion that Armstead's mysterious infection is a case of staph.

 

[Urgent]

Honestly MRSA is everywhere. It's in every hospital in America and you probably come in contact with it on a daily basis. If you don't have an open wound it shouldn't be a problem and it only takes a short course of IV antibiotics to clear it.

The "short course of IV antibiotics" can be 16 weeks with an intravenous PIC line, which requires great care, since it itself is a delivery device to your heart and bloodstream and comes into contact with additional bacteria.

Yes the bacteria can be common. The problem, as others have mentioned, is that once in the bloodstream, since it is resistant to common antibiotics, it is tough to get rid of and easy to spread. This is different than "flesh-eating bacteria" in that it might not eat your arm, but it's much harder to kill.

This can be especially dangerous for anyone with any metal in the body - a screw in the ankle, a plate in the arm. The bacteria tends to stick to metal really well, and can create a tough membrane. Since there isn't a blood supply in the metal, it is much harder for white blood cells or antibiotics in the bloodstream to get to it. It can hunker down while you go through the antibiotic treatment, and then when you look out the second floor window it's gotten up out of the bushes and walked away, sharpening its knives.

 

[PatsDeb]

I am so glad your husband got through that and is doing OK! Good lord that is scary.

Thanks to you and Ian. It was very scary. He actually developed toxic shock syndrome, which is strep A gone wild (yes, men can get it - who knew? Not the first hospital where I had him which almost killed him.) Luckily I got him transferred to Lahey Clinic where they diagnosed him immediately and got him on the correct meds.

The telltale sign? When he took off his shirt in the ICU he had the worst looking sunburn I have ever seen, even though he had not been out in the sun. The docs told me it is from the toxins literally burning you from the inside out. I looked it up on the internet and had to stop reading when they were talking about good outcomes being survival with the loss of only one limb. He survived with no ill effects, which was pretty much a miracle considering how long it took to diagnose (about 5 days from onset of serious symptoms like disorientation).

The one thing I learned - trust your instincts and don't be afraid to move your loved one somewhere else when you think he is not getting proper care. The original ER/ICU docs were very nice, but they didn't know what that sunburn meant.

 

[Urgent]

So just out of curiosity, why can they divulge the information regarding other injuries or situations; and why do we constantly hear about other teams involvement with staph etc?

My understanding is that there is a very specific agreement in the CBA where the NFL can report the impact. That is: ankle, knee, head, wrist. Other things like diabetes or kidney function are not supposed to be disclosed. A lot of that stuff gets out. I think the Donald Brown situation was handled the right way - player was released with no public announcement, then the player decided to announce the reason upon retirement. The team might list Tynes out with "foot" or even "toe" but not MRSA.

A lot of gray areas and "according to sources." I haven't seen any challenges to this yet.

 

[supafly]

My understanding is that there is a very specific agreement in the CBA where the NFL can report the impact. That is: ankle, knee, head, wrist. Other things like diabetes or kidney function are not supposed to be disclosed. A lot of that stuff gets out. I think the Donald Brown situation was handled the right way - player was released with no public announcement, then the player decided to announce the reason upon retirement. The team might list Tynes out with "foot" or even "toe" but not MRSA.

A lot of gray areas and "according to sources." I haven't seen any challenges to this yet.

Thank you for the explanation.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Hearing this confirms my suspicion that Armstead's mysterious infection is a case of staph.

Whew! Then I'm no longer fearful it was a yeast infection.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

The "short course of IV antibiotics" can be 16 weeks with an intravenous PIC line, which requires great care, since it itself is a delivery device to your heart and bloodstream and comes into contact with additional bacteria.

Yes the bacteria can be common. The problem, as others have mentioned, is that once in the bloodstream, since it is resistant to common antibiotics, it is tough to get rid of and easy to spread. This is different than "flesh-eating bacteria" in that it might not eat your arm, but it's much harder to kill.

This can be especially dangerous for anyone with any metal in the body - a screw in the ankle, a plate in the arm. The bacteria tends to stick to metal really well, and can create a tough membrane. Since there isn't a blood supply in the metal, it is much harder for white blood cells or antibiotics in the bloodstream to get to it. It can hunker down while you go through the antibiotic treatment, and then when you look out the second floor window it's gotten up out of the bushes and walked away, sharpening its knives.

Having just broken a toe and slashed it in a boating accident, I had the dreaded "open wound fracture" which is seriously susceptible to a hard to treat bone infection. Had to go to hospital same day care for a couple days of IV antibiotics. Didn't Gronk have an infection of his latest metal implant on his open wound fracture? These are serious issues.

 

[The Scrizz]

Yes, according to the HIPAA rules.

It is a relatively simple thing to waive your HIPPA rights. I would think most athletes have a selective waiver as part of any standard contract giving their team access to medical records.

 

[BTTA]

It wreaks havoc on immunocompromised people (i.e. sick people in the hospital). I don't know what you consider "under control" but it is very treatable and no, antibiotics did not get us into this "mess", taking antibiotics improperly got us into this mess.

1. Many hospitals are having a difficult time just getting doctors to disinfect their hands as they move from one patient room to another. Their ability to move quickly with policy that anticipates problems is at best concerning.

2. Taking antibiotics improperly is inevitable given the decision we've made as a species to use them so widely and frequently. That much complexity over that great a distance and time makes "improper" into "normal."

3. Nothing of substance is happening to slow down the use of antibiotics. Every day sees a continued rise in their use. Which means that every day, the bacteria strengthen their resistance. It isn't some kind of bad scifi movie, it is the reality we've all created together.

4. The biotechs that are working on this are still at least a decade behind getting something game changing to market. Probably closer to 20 years, given the testing and approval required. The scientists I talk to who are involved are optimistic but scared, and generally don't take their families to hospitals under anything but the most dire circumstances. Or to water parks, for that matter.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Wouldn't this be a hipaa violation for letting this information out?

It's a bit murky.

MRSA, if I am not mistaken, is a reportable illness, which has to be reported to the state health department and/or CDC.

Reporting specific players might be a thorny issue, but the fact that there was an outbreak at the Bucs facility, I think, would fall under a "public safety" exception to whatever health privacy laws exist.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

3. Nothing of substance is happening to slow down the use of antibiotics. Every day sees a continued rise in their use. Which means that every day, the bacteria strengthen their resistance. It isn't some kind of bad scifi movie, it is the reality we've all created together.

To be fair, though, animals get more antibiotics than we humans do. So misuse by sick folks is arguably less of a problem than overuse by agriculture.

 

[Coach42]

1. Many hospitals are having a difficult time just getting doctors to disinfect their hands as they move from one patient room to another. Their ability to move quickly with policy that anticipates problems is at best concerning.

2. Taking antibiotics improperly is inevitable given the decision we've made as a species to use them so widely and frequently. That much complexity over that great a distance and time makes "improper" into "normal."

3. Nothing of substance is happening to slow down the use of antibiotics. Every day sees a continued rise in their use. Which means that every day, the bacteria strengthen their resistance. It isn't some kind of bad scifi movie, it is the reality we've all created together.

4. The biotechs that are working on this are still at least a decade behind getting something game changing to market. Probably closer to 20 years, given the testing and approval required. The scientists I talk to who are involved are optimistic but scared, and generally don't take their families to hospitals under anything but the most dire circumstances. Or to water parks, for that matter.

I hate to pull this card but I think in this situation it's kind of warranted. I work in an ICU it's my job to deal with MRSA every single day. Is it a problem? Certainly. It is a problem in hospitals because the patients are vulnerable due to being immunocompromised. That's why you don't hear often her of health care workers becoming sick from these bacteria. Healthy people are exposed every single day. In fact it has gotten to the point where people are actually colonized with MRSA. Meaning their own natural bacteria that covers every inch of our skin is MRSA. If you have a healthy immune system MRSA is no more of a threat than any other.

In addition, who ever told you that research is a decade behind is plain wrong. This is not my opinion. This is evidence based, peer reviewed research. I would refer you to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov or any other scholarly journal for that matter. MRSA is very treatable for healthy people. If you are already sick and end up with an MRSA infection it could be deadly but, then again, so could any other bacterial infection.

If you really want to scare yourself look into ESBL, VRE, or for that matter cephalosporin resistant gonorrhea.

 

[Fencer]

I wonder whether MRSA is a single bug. After all, the whole point is that it's recently mutated multiple times.

Anyhow, my wife had a MRSA skin infection that took quite a while to clear. Probably didn't get it in a hospital.

My father died having MRSA, but he had a lot of other things wrong as well.

 

[Archeryaddict12]

Does amendola have it??

 

[Joker]

Does amendola have it??

I think you should ask Mrs A that very personal question....:behindsofa:

 

[Deus Irae]

Wouldn't this be a hipaa violation for letting this information out?

We don't have enough information on how this became public knowledge to know the answer to your question.


On a side note, the U.S. public was sold a bill of goods on HIPAA, but it's convoluted enough that many people still don't realize that.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

We don't have enough information on how this became public knowledge to know the answer to your question.


On a side note, the U.S. public was sold a bill of goods on HIPAA, but it's convoluted enough that many people still don't realize that.

If you're talking about the "accountability" (i.e., privacy) part of HIPAA, that's germane here.

If you're talking about the "portability" (i.e., insurance) part of HIPAA, please take that to the political forum.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

I wonder whether MRSA is a single bug. After all, the whole point is that it's recently mutated multiple times.

Yes and no: many bacterial species consist of several strains.

As an example: the E. coli strain that (probably) lives in your digestive tract is not the same strain as the one associated with food poisoning outbreaks (O157:H7), but both strains are E. coli.

 

[YearbookCurfew]

Just reading this news makes me want to go wash my hands with hot soapy water.