Why Do They Isolate You For Celluitis In The Hospital

What if a patient is in hospital being treated with antibiotics for staph? Is he contagious?

Generally not; most infections caused by staphylococci are contagious. The most contagious infections commonly encountered in hospitals are viral respiratory infections, or gastrointestinal infections, which staph rarely causes.Note that “staph” refers to the bacterium, not the disease; that depends on the site of infection. It may cause things like cellulitis, and occasionally things like septicaemia. Rarely does it cause respiratory infections.Most of those aren’t directly contagious.The only quasi-exception is MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus). This is a form of staph that is resistant to some common antibiotics. It most commonly just colonises the skin and doesn’t cause harm (like all other staph), but if it causes infections it’s harder to treat. Consequently these patients are usually treated as though they are contagious, even if their infection isn’t really. The main issue is the organism becoming more prevalent.Truth be told, people probably panic a little more about MRSA than they need to- a lot of people seem to think it’s this incurable superbug that kills anyone it touches. In reality it just means that you need to use different antibiotics to treat it (however we don’t want to have to use these antibiotics all the time in case they stop working, in which case we start to run out of options).

As a Physician, Have you have ever treated someone with a infection so severe, you had to research extensively before you treated it?

Its not severity that requires research. Its unusual infection/rare infection and in cases of resistance that requires more attention.I had a case in ID that required a lot of researching. It was a case of malakoplakia in a renal transplant where the offending E.coli was resistant to previously established therapy. The infection is unique as it was surviving inside the dysfunctional macrophage so an antibiotics with good membrane penetration and high Vd was required to reach it. Septra and cipro are the two standard therapy due to this requirement.Given the resistance, I dug through the literature and found only 20 case reports in the world since this condition was discovered. Only three delt with resistant infections. We end up formulating an experimental therapy based on what we know about the disease and antibiotics property. Good news is patient was treated successfully. Bad news is I didn't bother collecting all the case data and submit the 21st worldwide case report =(.For those who are curious, we used a prolonged course of fosfomycin and high dose ceftriaxone.

Are the negative effects of methamphetamine exaggerated?

My ex husband is a methamphetamine addict. I have a photo of him in the Intensive Care Unit that I cannot share here without his permission, and I won’t be getting that, because he is in prison, where he has spent a full third of his entire life. He has made SEVEN trips into the pokey. He has THREE PAGES of mugshots alone, starting in the early nineties all the way up to this year. He was in the ICU for one of the worst cases of pleurisy the hospital had ever seen, from smoking meth AND polishing off a medical grade nitrous tank by himself over the course of a few days. He also had a terrible case of cellulitis. His face had swelled to about three times its normal size, he had a black, swollen, bulging eye, and he was fully unconscious. He broke both ankles at work falling off a beam and landing on his feet, because he had not slept in over a week. His mother had to help him use the toilet next to his bed because he couldn’t walk. He got 2 women pregnant within 6 weeks of one another. He had a third child a few years later who was born while he was incarcerated. He owes about 60k in child support for his 3 kids. His driver’s license is permanently revoked. He is banned from all Walgreens stores. He stole from my grandmother’s house the day of my mother’s funeral. He was so high he committed grand larceny- against the DEA. You know you've killed a few brain cells when you believe you’re going to get away with this AND discuss it on a tapped jailhouse phone call. It’s like his IQ dropped 90 points or so over the last 20 years. He’s got heart disease, gum disease, migraines, he’s homeless, careerless, and now taking it in the back door for “squares” and “favors.” He has been estranged from his son for years. I remember when he moved a 350 lb. red-headed woman with no teeth into his mom’s basement named “Devina” with whom he had sex for hours on a daily basis. I could go on.No, it is not exaggerated, and it’s worse than you could even imagine. Meth addicts have a 96% recidivism rate after incarceration, too. He has thrown his life away.