A serious warning: If you have what you think is a spider bite that will not heal, or a pimple that just won't get better you may actually have something much more serious. There has been a huge upswing in antibiotic resistant staph infections.
A once-rare drug-resistant germ now appears to cause more than half of all skin infections treated in U.S. emergency rooms, say researchers who documented the superbug's startling spread in the general population.
Many victims mistakenly thought they just had spider bites that wouldn't heal, not drug-resistant staph bacteria. Only a decade ago, these germs were hardly ever seen outside of hospitals and nursing homes.
Doctors also were caught off-guard — most of them unwittingly prescribed medicines that do not work against the bacteria.
"It is time for physicians to realize just how prevalent this is," said Dr. Gregory Moran of Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, who led the study.
Another author, Dr. Rachel Gorwitz of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said: "I think no one was aware of the extent of the problem."
Skin infections can be life-threatening if bacteria get into the bloodstream. Drug-resistant strains can also cause a vicious type of pneumonia and even "flesh-eating" wounds.
The good news is that the condition is treatable, but you really do need to see a doctor. It has become so widespread that doctors are now treating all of these as if they were resistant staph infections.
This kind of infection recently made the rounds of nail salons that offer pedicures and waxing here in Northern California. There were hundreds of cases of these infections in the area. All it took was one person with such a case combined with improperly sanitized equipment or improper procedures for handling waxes and bingo, the infection gets spread to the clientelle.