MSRA, Amputations, and Sanitation

    Kimberly Jackson is a young lady who contracted MSRA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) in 2006.  She visited a nail salon she had been to many times in Fort Worth, TX.  Kimberly contracted MSRA from that nail salon.  She contracted MSRA from a pedicure.  After contracting MSRA she later suffered a massive heart attack from this disease.  Kimberly's ordeal happened in 2006, but in November 2009, a client in Alabama had been cut by an emery board several times in her visit.  That Alabama client noticed swelling, soreness, and redness.  The Alabama client had contracted MSRA, and because she sought medical attention immediately, she was able to avoid having 5 of her 10 fingers amputated.  In 2008, 18,000 people died from MSRA.  As nail technicians this can be a possibility, but we can also do the best we can to prevent such horrible ordeals.
     What is MSRA you may ask?  Well, let me explain it to you in short form...MSRA is a bacterium that caused skin infections and has become resistant to most forms of antibiotics.  It is spread by a person who is infected by the bacteria (sometimes unknowingly), and then that person actively touched and contaminated the impliment, surface, or other.  Infection most easily infects someone by a breach in the skin, ie. hangnail.  Everyone carries the infection, but only a few exemplify symptoms.  A person who colonizes MSRA will not show symptoms, but people with it show symptoms that look like red, swollen, and tender known as cellulitis, and there might also be pestules or boils as well. 
     There are three steps to help prevent MSRA.  Sanitation, disinfection, and sterylization are the three steps to assure MSRA is prevented as much as possible, and don't your clients deserve such respect?  We as nail technicians need to sanatize everything that can be sanatized and dispose of all non sanatizable items after used on every client.  It does not matter if the client sitting across from you is your childhood friend you have known for years.  That friend could very well be a carrier.  One of the reasons I use a towel that can be washed on all communible surfaces, is because I am preventing the client from touching surfaces as such.  It is your responsibility and no one elses to keep your clients healthy.  With that being said, your salon owner should also give you enough time between clients to effectively sanatize and disinfect your station so that you do not spread this bacteria.  Also certain clients may also have a disease that lowers their immune system, so also be aware of that.  Lupus is a disease that lowers the body's immune system.  Clients with a diease such as that will be 10 times more likely to catch the bacteria, so a client consult form would be a fantastic idea and document any disease under the medical background section.
    I hope I have opened your eyes to a bacteria that I know was never discussed in cosmotology school. We covered Staph in our textbooks in school, but never did we discuss Kimberly's story or how infectious this bacteria is.