Mercer:Are you taking about MRSA? - French Clay Can Kill MRSA And 'Flesh-Eating' Bacteria

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A co-worker from our office found out today that she has Mercer. does anyone know about this disease and if so, what should we be cautious of and is it contagious? We were told that it was very serious.Thanks for your feed back________-Are you sure it is not: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mrsa/DS00735MRSA infectionARTICLE SECTIONSDefinition SymptomsCausesRisk factorsWhen to seek medical adviceTests and diagnosisTreatments and drugsPreventionDefinitionMRSA infection is caused by Staphylococcus aureus bacteria — often called "staph." MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It's a strain of staph that's resistant to the broad-spectrum antibiotics commonly used to treat it. MRSA can be fatal. Most MRSA infections occur in hospitals or other health care settings, such as nursing homes and dialysis centers. It's known as health care-associated MRSA, or HA-MRSA. Older adults and people with weakened immune systems are at most risk of HA-MRSA. More recently, another type of MRSA has occurred among otherwise healthy people in the wider community. This form, community-associated MRSA, or CA-MRSA, is responsible for serious skin and soft tissue infections and for a serious form of pneumonia. _____________________Science News http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071025120514.htmFrench Clay Can Kill MRSA And 'Flesh-Eating' BacteriaScienceDaily (Oct. 26, 2007) — French clay that kills several kinds of disease-causing bacteria is at the forefront of new research into age-old, nearly forgotten, but surprisingly potent cures. Among the malevolent bacteria that a French clay has been shown to fight is a "flesh-eating" bug (M. ulcerans) on the rise in Africa and the germ called MRSA, which was blamed for the recent deaths of two children in Virginia and Mississippi.See also: Health & MedicineInfectious DiseasesPharmacologyAlternative MedicinePlants & AnimalsBacteriaMicrobiologyMicrobes and MoreReferenceMaggot therapyPenicillin-like antibioticsSoil pHCandidiasis"There are very compelling reports of clay treating infections, but that's anecdotal evidence, not science," said Lynda Williams, an associate research professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, Tempe. Williams is coordinating three teams of U.S. researchers (at ASU, USGS, and SUNY-Buffalo) studying healing clays under a two-year, $440,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health-National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Her ASU colleague Shelley Haydel is lending her expertise in clinical medicine to perform the microbiological research.For thousands of years, people have used clay to heal wounds, soothe indigestion, and kill intestinal worms. Though the practice has declined in modern times, the recent rise of drug-resistant germs has scientists looking more closely at these ancient remedies to learn exactly what they can do and how they do it.Rossman Giese, Ph.D., professor of geology in UB's College of Arts and Sciences, and Tracy Bank, Ph.D., assistant professor of geology at UB, are using several techniques to study the clays, including atomic force microscopy. The researchers are studying the weak interactions that are responsible for the stickiness of clay particles."We look at the attraction or repulsion between natural and modified clays and bacteria," said Giese.Unlike antibiotics, which are essentially a chemical weapon against bacteria, antimicrobial clays kill through purely physical means, he explained. "The bacterium has to come into physical contact with the clay in order for something to happen." Giese said. That contact turns deadly."The antimicrobial agents in the clay poke a hole in the cell wall of the bacterium causing the bacterium to leak to death," he explained. "The nice thing about that is that there is no way that the bacterium can evolve to avoid it, so resistance to the antimicrobial clay is unlikely to become a problem."The clay developed by UB researchers has been very effective in lab testing."Our studies show that when we mix a bit of our modified clay at very low levels into sewage sludge that contains all kinds of bacteria, the modified clay kills everything," said Giese. "Nothing will grow in it.""We're beginning to generate the first scientific evidence of why some minerals might kill bacterial organisms and others might not," said Williams. In laboratory tests at ASU's Biodesign Institute, co-PI Haydel, an assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences, showed that one clay killed bacteria responsible for many human illnesses, including: Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), penicillin-resistant S. aureus (PRSA), and pathogenic Escherichia coli (E. coli). It also killed Mycobacterium ulcerans, a germ related to leprosy and tuberculosis that causes the flesh-eating disease Buruli ulcer. This effect was first described in 2002, by Line Brunet de Courssou, a French humanitarian working in the Ivory Coast, Africa, who cured Buruli ulcers with daily applications of French clay she knew from childhood. Currently, advanced cases of Buruli ulcer can only be cured by surgical excision or amputation.The new medicinal clay research will be presented on Monday, 29 October 2007, at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Denver. In the same session there will be a related presentation describing the work 100 years ago of Julius Stumpf, a German physician and scientist who used white clay from Germany to treat a deadly form of Asian cholera; diphtheria; gangrene; ulcers of the tibia (a bone between the knee and foot); and the skin disease eczema. Adapted from materials provided by Geological Society of America.Geological Society of America (2007, October 26). French Clay Can Kill MRSA And 'Flesh-Eating' Bacteria. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 1, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2007/10/071025120514.htm enlargeUniversity of Buffalo professor Rossman Giese and colleagues are studying the surface characteristics of naturally occurring antimicrobial clays, some of which have been shown to kill MRSA. (Credit: University of Buffalo) Related Stories'Healing Clays' Show Promise For Fighting Deadly MRSA Superbug Infections, Other Diseases (Apr. 8, 2008) — Mud may be coming to a medicine cabinet or pharmacy near you. Scientists report that minerals from clay could form the basis of a new generation of inexpensive, highly effective antimicrobials for ... > read moreSingle Cell Amoeba Increases MRSA Numbers 1000-fold (Mar. 31, 2006) — Scientists in the UK have found that a type of amoeba acts as an incubator for MRSA bacteria. As amoebae are often found in healthcare environments this discovery has implications for the infection ... > read moreMRSA In The Community: A New Threat To Children's Health? 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