StaphAseptic claims to kills more than 99.9 percent of MRSA — the antibiotic resistant staph infection. (WSBT photo)
Story Created:
Nov 20, 2007 at 6:44 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Mar 11, 2008 at 3:34 PM EDT
(WSBT) Experts call it a growing epidemic that could eventually kill more people than AIDS. The MRSA "super-bug" staph infection is creating a lot of concern. Now a new product promises to prevent it.
Amy and David Neikirk's 5-year-old son is in the hospital. They say he was diagnosed last month with MRSA after first being misdiagnosed.
"It was so painful for him. He would cry and cry and cry. It was bad," remembered Amy and David.
Dr. Jesse Hsieh with Granger Family Medicine says there are two kinds of MRSA — the staph infection you can get at the hospital and the highly contagious staph infection you can get from skin to skin contact in the community. It usually looks like a spider bite.
Hsieh says they're seeing more cases of the community-based MRSA.
"We don't see a lot of spiders around here. I mean at my practice, if we had as many spider bites as people are reporting that are really MRSA, we would be overrun by spiders," said Hsieh.
In November, the Liz Claiborne store in Michigan City shut its doors and got rid of everything inside because of an infection scare.
It turned out not to be MRSA, but it's that concern that has some wondering if a product called StaphAseptic is the real thing.
On the StaphAseptic box, it claims to kills more than 99.9 percent of MRSA — the antibiotic resistant staph.
"The difference is StaphAseptic, because of the way it was formulated, is designed specifically to take the ingredients into the staph organism and to kill it from the inside out," explained Vernon Smith, vice president of Tec Laboratories, Inc.
Hsieh says it may work, but there are things you can do to help yourself.
"Washing the breaks in the skin, washing your hands just with regular soap and water will help keep away the MRSA. So you don't absolutely have to have specific products for that," said Hsieh.
Smith says they've done in-vitro tests on StaphAseptic, which shows it is effective in preventing staph.
However, the company also admits the product alone is not the answer. They say it should be part of a larger prevention program.
StaphAseptic costs $14.99 a box.
If you do get the infection or a mark that looks like a spider bite, doctors say you should see your doctor. MRSA can still be deadly, especially if you have a weakened immune system.
Saturday, Nov 24 at 7:58 PM Tim1979 wrote ...
This product would not have prevented the ill-informed and irresponsible overreaction by LizClaiborne officials, who announced their actions knowing their employee was not infected with MRSA. Sad 2 say, but there's no vaccine for corporate stupidity!