Giving Compass' Take:

· Futurity touches on a relatively simple way to help parent reduce the chances of exposing their babies in the NICU to Staphylococcus aureus.

· How can donors help prevent the spread of potentially deadly diseases around the world?

· Check out this article about an organization that support families throughout the NICU process.

“Traditional procedures for preventing hospital-acquired staph infections in the NICU have primarily focused on keeping staff and facilities as sterile as possible,” says lead author Aaron Milstone, associate hospital epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital and professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Our study is among the first to focus on parents as a source of the bacteria and then test the effectiveness of an intervention to combat the problem.”

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 30% of the adult population are long-term carriers of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Most of the time, these people are healthy and the microorganisms they harbor cause no harm. However, in healthcare settings where patients may have weakened immune systems, the bacteria can become a serious, even deadly, threat.

An unchecked spread of the bacteria—both the antibiotic-susceptible and antibiotic-resistant (such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA) strains—can lead to severe complications, including bacteremia or sepsis (blood infections), pneumonia, endocarditis (heart valve infection), and osteomyelitis (bone infection).

Read the full article about protecting babies in the NICU at Futurity.