Federal Government Forms a Work Group on MRSA in Meat

More than 5 percent of the pork sold in supermarkets in Baton Rouge and roughly one-in-seven pork chops sold in Canada were found to be harboring the bacteria, which now kills more Americans each year than AIDS.

People dying as a result of lack of oversight by people paid to protect our food supply....unacceptable.

Look at all of the money being spent to combat AIDS.....and yet more people die horrendous deaths for food poisoning that could and should be prevented. !*#%

Hopefully my heart will explode, before I die a slow agonizing death by food poisoning. [insert sarcasm here]

There aren't enough inspectors as it is. How can we possibly expect them to step it up. Our leaders are all failures and the food industry is a criminal accomplice.

As an EMT I was exposed to MRSA on a daily basis. The golden rule there: Frequent hand washing and personal protective equipment (gloves) along with careful disinfection and cleaning of equipment between patients to avoid cross contamination.

As a professional chef, all raw meat should be treated like it is infected with something, frequent hand washing, careful cleaning of equipment between raw and cooked foods to avoid cross contamination.

MRSA is just a staph infection that doesn't respond to traditional antibiotics. The reason it becomes a problem is that it either gets introduced into a wound, or through the mucous membranes. From there it can make its way into the layers between bundles of tissues in the body, the Fascia. The fascia holds your organs together in your gut, it holds muscles together, it separates the different compartments of the body... An infection or inflammation of the fascia is call fasciitis. Necrotizing fasciitis is when the infection actually kills tissue. Once an infection gets into the fascia it is more difficult for your body to combat, but unless you have a compromised immune system your body is perfectly capable of killing even MRSA long before it gets to that point.

Cooking it will kill it in food. Hand washing and bleach water are great ways to keep it from spreading by cleaning up after.

I do worry about silver, as it is becoming omnipresent in things like food prep equipment, toys and furniture fabric. I worry that this continuous exposure could either have a cumulative negative effect on the body, become less effective through universal exposure, or actually cause allergic reactions. Any of the three would be undesirable, because silver is relatively innocuous compared to some of the other drugs, treatments and sanitizers out there and it is very useful when needed. I wouldn't take it myself on a regular basis, though if I needed to fight an infection I would probably use it... I also don't take Echinacea unless I need it, but at the first sign of illness I pound the stuff to stave it off.

This is a great thread. You, GOZO-Unlimited, are uncommonly open-minded in the presence of facts! I am no end of impressed. Not many are. I have been guilty of being part of that crowd at times. You are very flexible and willing to acknowledge the validity of others when presented with facts. All the atheists will heap abuse upon me no doubt, for quoting scripture, but if pride go'eth before a fall, you won't be stumbling anytime soon, as you don't show evidence, at least not here, of haughtiness and the sin of excessive pride. Good job!

Now, on to the meaty stuff. MRSA is bad, yes. But Ben E. Coyote has good points. I've heard quotes, over and over, about how 33% of all chickens have salmonella. But that isn't a problem as long as you cook them thoroughly, until the juices run clear, and there is no pink at all. Sounds like the same is true with meat and MRSA.

Silver is great for healing burns. When my dear departed father worked at the Veteran's Administration, even though he was a cardiologist, he learned about treating 2nd and mild 3rd degree burns with some kind of ointment that was dirt cheap that had silver in it. A little bit went a very long way.

Also, I wear graduated compression hosiery. I got some by mail order because they were described as "silver". I imagined some gauzy, transparent feather light miracle of 30-40 mm compression stockings. Not quite. They are the same weight as long johns! However, they do have a silvery cast from the microbial silver fibers, and stay fresh and pleasant even after a long day of wear in Phoenix. (Still need to wash compression stockings in the machine with detergent every time. Wool-light is a joke as far as cleaning). The microbial silver is actually targeted toward diabetics and those with pressure or other open sores (I don't have those, thankfully). And I probably will stick to the regular compression stockings after reading Ben's comment about overexposure, as I sure would want the microbial silver to work the way it was designed to, should I have need of it in the future!