Re: Why are certain infections so common in hospitals (MRSA, VRE)?

Andrea, thank you for the question. It’s a very good one.

I’m struggling a little bit with the best way to explain this for your 8- year old. So, let me try to see what I can come up with.

Hospitals are buildings that house many ill people. These people are ill for various reasons, some of them are infected with these bacteria. As a result of being infected they need hospitalization, and are receiving antibiotics. Some of these bacteria can mutate (meaning they experience changes in their genes) such that these drugs have little to no effect anymore. These bacteria are now called resistant. Some of them become resistant to cleaning agents, while some of them, who would have otherwise been eradicated by the drugs and cleaning agents, are able to hide out in areas that can’t get cleaned. Either set of bacteria will do their best to infect other people.

So then while a person is in the hospital and their immune system is weakened, they are susceptible to infection. So some of them get infected from these bacteria. ,. The other main way that people in ICU get infected is that they have contact with the nurses and doctors. These health professionals deal with other infected individuals a lot. They can’t clean themselves between seeing patients, and sometimes have to rush from person to person. In this process, when interacting with some patients, the bacteria get on the professional, and then gets transferred to the patient with the weakened immune system. These bacteria probably would not have been that dangerous to individuals who are healthy, but that’s of little matter to the infected patient.

So those are basically the ways and means that people in ICUs get infected.

But I should mention, it is still a RARE occurrence for people to get infected in the hospital. And hospitals are still safe places to be and to go for help.

I hope that explains a few things. It might be a little advanced for your child, I tried to keep things simple, and still explain the actual science. Again, thanks for the question!

Lyle D. Burgoon
Graduate Assistant
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
College of Human Medicine
National Food Safety and Toxicology Center
Michigan State University