Potentially Deadly Golden Staph Infections Affect Hundreds Of Children Annually

Hundreds of children in Australia are being sent to hospitals after being infected with potentially deadly golden staph. In Australia, more than 350 children are hospitalized annually due to the infection.

A study found that around 70 percent of children with golden staph infections acquired it from the community and not in hospitals where the infection is commonly found, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Steven Tong, an associate professor and infectious diseases physician at the Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, said 30 percent of people have golden staph, or the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, on their skin or in their noses.

Golden staph is usually harmless but it can be deadly once it enters the blood through a wound, infecting the immune system and potentially causing some organs to shut down. Some of the skin infections golden staph can cause are boils, abscesses, and impetigo or school sores.

Impetigo is a highly contagious, yellow or brown crusty skin infection that usually affects newborn babies and schoolchildren, according to the BetterHealth Channel. The more serious golden staph infections are meningitis, endocarditis or infection of the heart valves, osteomyelitis or infection of the bone and bone marrow, pneumonia, and septic phlebitis or vein infection.

Golden staph can be found in armpits, groin, and under skin folds. It can be spread via skin-to-skin contact or by touching contaminated surfaces.

Golden staph infection is three times more prevalent in Australian indigenous children than their non-indigenous counterparts. Five percent of children die after being affected by golden staph infection, while it kills 20 percent of adults.

To avoid golden staph infections, Tong advised families to put ointment in their noses and wash sheets and towels using hot water for a week to kill the bacteria. Other helpful ways to avoid golden staph infection are washing your hands and checking and dressing wounds properly. The same tips also apply to health care officials in hospitals.

Potentially deadly golden staph infection has become resistant to antibiotics in the 1960s, and that situation hasn't changed much since. At the moment, golden staph infections kill one in three Australians and 50 percent of people infected in other countries, The Huffington Post reported.

A drug called vancomycin is used as standard treatment for golden staph infections that don't respond to drugs. Vancomycin, however, is not that effective against golden staph infections. Experts believe that combining vancomycin and a penicillin-like beta-lactam drug work more efficiently against the infection.