Local Man Works to Prevent MRSA
Parents across the state are worried about the spread of the superbug. The Arkansas Department of Health has received several calls from parents worried about MRSA in public schools. This comes after the Palestine-Wheatley district closed Tuesday so workers could clean classrooms, lunchrooms, and hallways. The reason? An 11 year old boy was diagnosed with a drug resistant staph infection called MRSA. He's being treated at a Memphis hospital. The district decided to close the school as a precaution. It also sent letters home to parents with information about MRSA. "I feel confident that we've done everything possible, we were already on top of this weeks ago trying to be proactive and disinfect," says Don Collins. The school district of 566 students is now back open.And yes it seems MRSA is a pretty big topic these days. And one Arkansas man says he has a new product to fight it. It's called Staph Wash a spray he guarantees will kill 100% of staph infection causing bacteria. Experts at Arkansas Children's Hospital say they are constantly tracking multi-drug resistant organisms like MRSA. But the makers of this tiny spray bottle of "Staph Wash" say it does more than track the bacteria. It kills it on contact without any side effects, including MRSA, and they say they have proof to back that up. To James Pate getting his product Staph Wash out there is personal. "Her kidneys were shutting down, so they didn't know what else to do," says Pate. His sister, a 60-year-old diabetic, was hospitalized this summer with MRSA."On the trip down, I said, brother I hope you got enough money to make my bond. And he kind of looked at me and said what are you going to do? And I said I'm going to use Staph Wash on sis when I get there."Her doctor agreed to let Pate use Staph Wash on her and she healed in five weeks instead of four to six months.Arkansas Children's Hospital checks each new patient for multi-drug resistant organisms like MRSA. Arkansas Children's Hospital is one of the first hospitals in the country to use the B-D Phoenix. It can test up to 100 samples in as little as four to six hours.If someone has MRSA they're put in isolation and a hospital-wide computer system alerts staff members. The hospital also has special guidelines for families to follow once a patient with MRSA goes home. "They may want to wash their bed linen and their clothing separate from other members of the household until that's healed up," says Craig Gilliam the Director of Infection Control at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Pate says his wash is ready to join the fight. He can't give away exactly what's in Staph Wash but he can say its molecules attach to and remove bacteria. "It's not about making money, it's about saving their limbs and their lives."Pate can't market this is a drug or medicine because he says it would take years to get FDA approval. He'd rather just sell it right away and start helping people now. He can do that if he sells it as an anti-bacterial product.Staph Wash InformationPreventing MRSA
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