'Staph carriers'

[TamedBill]

During one of those meandering conversations you have sometimes, one of my colleagues told me that some people are 'Staph' carriers', they host the bacteria Staphylococuss (sp) whilst showing no signs of any infection.
He reckons they are banned from working in Health care professions etc because of the risk of infecting people with a diminished immune system.
As everyone has loads of bacteria on them at any given moment I was sceptical, but he reckons this is differant.
I have to say his explanation did sound as though it might just be feasible.
Is there such a thing as a 'Staph carrier'?

[Flyin'Dutch']

Yup.

But that they would be banned from working in the healthcare industry is not true.

FD

[DX Wombat]

It only really becomes a problem when someone is a carrier of MRSA - Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus. That's the really nasty one but even so, it would be treated and the person allowed to continue working once clear.

[Andrew G20]

Staphylococcus aureus is found commonly on many people, on the skin and in the nasal passage, as many as 40% of the population it is reckoned, so it isn't rare.
In healthy people it doesn't present a problem as a rule as the body can generally fight it off (bog standard S.aureus that is).
Even MRSA and VRE (Vancomycin resistant enterococci) are relatively common, lesser so with the VRE, but again do not necessarily present a problem in healthy people.
Risk groups include post surgical patients, long-term hospital in-patients (especially those with deep wounds, intravenous catheters) and those with weakened immune systems.
The strains are spread via either primary contact (by contact with the skin of a person carrying it) or secondary contact with objects (such as a wound dressing or towels).
Lack of hygiene in hospitals has been touted as a contributing factor to the prevalence of these infections in hospitals, but the main causes have more to them than that.

[TamedBill]

Thanks for the replies. So it's not actually something that people in healthcare professions would be tested for routinely unlike say for a transmittable virus?
I presume there has to be an outbreak of infection and 'points of contact' traced back to the source to find out who is the staph carrier?
I was getting a bit confused thinking the carrier was immune to the bacteria themselves but carried around high levels in their bloodstream which didn't tally with what I can remember about bacteria and the immune system.

[Andrew G20]

carriers aren't immune as such, it's just that the bacteria must migrate to another part of the body to cause a problem in those that are susceptible.
I'm not sure that tests are carried out to see if a person is a carrier; considering so many people routinely possess this bacteria it would probably be a fruitless task.
As for accurately detecting the initial cause of a staph infection, this would probably be extremely difficult.