A recent argument for keeping your immune system strong

Some of the material on infectious
diseases which I've been reading
lately hit the front pages this morning.

Jack Snow, a St Louis Rams former football
and announcer, died of a staph infection.

Apparently, there've also been recent
cases regarding high school wrestlers.
And from what one radio guy I heard
this morning say, it was a staph
infection that killed Buzz Westfall,
who used to be St Louis County
Executive.

According to this article Snow's staph
infection was not the kind that is
resistant to antibiotics.

Jack Snow article

Of course, if it was easily killed by
antibiotics, then why did Snow die?
He was at Barnes Jewish Hospital, one
of the best in the country (I've seen
it ranked #4 in various polls) and he
was a local celebrity. I'm sure they
did what they could. If the staph was
so easily killed, why was he sick
for 2 months and now dead?

It's interesting that a few years ago
some Rams players picked up resistant
staph infections from playing on
artificial turf, and ex-Coach Mike
Martz had an infection of the heart valve.

staph article

The book I reviewed yesterday, Secret
Agents: The Menace of Emerging Infections
by Madeline Drexler has a long chapter
on antibiotic resistant infections,
especially staph, which can become really
virulent in a hospital setting.

Strains of staph resistant to methicillin (a
semi-synthetic form of penicillin) began
showing up a year after it was introduced.

The first known strain of staph which resisted
ALL antibiotics occurred in July 1997.

That same month, a 7 year old girl died of
staph in her blood. She was not in a
hospital, which imakes her case even
scarier.

In some hospitals, up to 70% of the
Staphyloccoccus aureus is the multi-drug
resistant -- or MRSA -- strain.

Wake up, people -- even athletes and well-known
sports announcers can die of staph, so you
can too.

Staph is all around us -- 20 to 30% of us
have it in our nostrils. I've read that it's
also prevalent under our arms and groins -- it likes
warm and moist environments, apparently.

I had a vicious case of boils about 11 years
ago, which is caused by staph. As I recall,
I did eventually take antibiotics. I wonder
if they would work if I got boils now?

So, my advice is -- keep your immune system
strong. Something is always attacking you
and if your immune system weakens, it may
succeed.

By the way, just so nobody gets the wrong impression --
I'm sure Barnes Jewish Hospitals are no worse
than any other hospitals and probably better.
I don't want to go to a hospital, but if I had
to, Barnes Jewish would be my first choice for this
area.