Hi, i have a 4 yr old with CF who has been generally "healthy" except for a cough in the morning. She had her 3 mo check up and the Dr ordered a sputum culture. She has never cultured positive for anything before so i thought it would be fine. Well, came back yesterday positive +3 h influenzae and +1 for staph. First of all, what does this mean? I dont know alot about these bacterias. Shes on Augmantin for 2 weeks. Will it go away? Can my other daughter with CF get it from her sister? Where did she get this? I knew it would happen sooner or later, i was just hoping later. Thanks for any input, support! Jen R
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Staph and i influenzae
- Thread starter anonymous
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Acording to what I have been taught everyone with cf has somthing growing in their lungs all the time. The question is: what bacteria? and to what degree? Staph is the most common for youger people and is usually easily treated with oral antibiotics. Remember that every cf'er is different though. My daughter,6, almost always cultures staph. Only once did it not respond to oral antiobiotics and they suspected that she had psuedomonas that was just not showing up in the cultures. The 1 through 4+ just lets the Doc's have an idea as to what degree the infection is. The Pathogens found in young children are usually Staph Aureus, H.Influenzae, E. coli, and various gram negatives. The Pathogens in older children and adults are P. aeruginosa, S. aureus/MRSA, S.maltophilia, A.Xyloxidans, B.cepecia, Atypical mycobateria, Aspergillus species. As one grows older the bacterias can change, leading to the importance of frequent cultures. I hope this helps. It can be scarry when things start showing up. Michelle
Hey there, 22 year old Cfer here. You should try teaching your daughter about where bacteria comes from. Let her get into the habit of recognizing situations that spread bacteria (going to the bathroom, sharring clay during art class, playing at Chuckie Cheese, ect.) and engourage her to was her hands. Not only will this take a load off your mind, but it will give her a feeling of responsibility and independence. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">
My son is 7 months old and has cultured staph twice. Once at 4 months and again at 7 months. I understand you being worried I was so scared because I hoped that it would be years before he showd anything with cultures.Not the case with him. However my little one Colgan has had a lot of stuff in his short time so far. I pray for a break for him. I know he is tired of fighting and just want to be healthy for once. He was treated both times with Trobramycin and Fortaz IV it was 7 to 10 days in hospital each time. I hope that it all works out for you and your little girl.Also as far as I understand yes these bacterias can be shared easily between other siblings with cf. Good hand washing and masks with close contact is what my Pulmonologist suggests. I know you will do fine hang in there.Ashauna mom to 2 boys Maxwel and Colgan with cf.
himy son is going to be 2 in november we are getting ready to do the sweat test on wednesday. My son has caught a severe staff infection at the age of 10mos and there after has had a biweekly ritual of getting sick with a fever and puking and eventualy getting dehyderated and in the hospital , it has been more spread out not its not so freaquent but i guess my question to you is what are the first signs of this deise and what really is it??? any answers would truely help. thanks sooo much, amanda<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif" border="0">
<blockquote>Quote<br><hr><i>Originally posted by: <b>Anonymous</b></i>himy son is going to be 2 in november we are getting ready to do the sweat test on wednesday. My son has caught a severe staff infection at the age of 10mos and there after has had a biweekly ritual of getting sick with a fever and puking and eventualy getting dehyderated and in the hospital , it has been more spread out not its not so freaquent but i guess my question to you is what are the first signs of this deise and what really is it??? any answers would truely help. thanks sooo much, amanda<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif" border="0"><hr></blockquote>
hi i'm 14 years old and i have had the staph infection treated more then once but yet it still continues to come back.I have been in the hospital for the infection but just the other day i notice i had a little bump come up on me that was real sore and i was thinking this is exactly what happen when i had it the other times so i went to the hospital and got it checked out and come to find out that i had the staph infection again!!! i just want to tell you guys know that this bacteria is air born and is speading very quickly so make sure you keep your house disinfected with bleach and keep your infected child or relative away from any other family memebers cause it is easliy spreaded and also i would like to mention this is a life treating bacteria which could lead to death if it's not treated right away!!!!!! thank you <img src="i/expressions/beer.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/brokenheart.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/camera.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/clock.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/devil.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/present.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif" border="0">
Hi I was diagnosed w/ staph in grade school & I contacted it from my sister. We sometimes would sleep in the same Mist Tent (back in the 70's) & that's how I got staph from her.I had to come home at lunch & do shots, but that got rid of it & I've never had a reoccurance of it that I'm aware of here some 25-30 years later.So in answer to your email. Yes, it can be spread between siblings, other CFers at the Dr office, at the hospital, etc, etc, etc., but I think it can be taken care of w/ antibiotics. Maybe some of why I got over it for good was that my CF was pretty mild? but I don't think my sister contacted it again after her shots either. She has now passed away, so I don't know for sure, but I don't remember my mother telling me to keep away, wash hands, etc. when around her.Good Luck<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">
My 12 year old daughter has cultured positive for staph for years. The CF doctor does not treat the staph because he says it will just come back. She gets antibiotics only when she shows obvious signs of infection. (eg increased cough, green mucus). Her lung function is normal. Not treating the staph has always worried me, but I also don't want her on constant antibiotics. This does not seem to be how most of the people in this forum have been treated. Any opinions? Similar experiences?
Hey Mom of Dots, I have a 19 year old son, who for many years only cultured staph aureas. Whenever he had an exacerbation, i.e. lower than normal pulmonary function tests, decrease in weight, energy, and appetite, we would start out with the normal oral antibiotics, and Tobi & friends, with great success. Unfortunately, the nature of the disease being the constant barrage of low grade infection causes the immine system to respond by sending white blood cells to fight the inflamation that occurs constantly. The result of this is the waste or byproduct of the dead/used up wbc causeing the "scarring" or compromise in the lung tissue. This in turn causes the lungs to become less effective in clearing mucus, creating an ideal environment for more opportunistic bacteria such as psuedomonas aueriginosa, etc. to grow...the use of home IVs and more frequent visits to the Cf center & hospitalizations eventually become the norm. New therapy approaches are being used to fight the inflamation response such as Zythromax, Biaxan and Ibuprofin(used as a prophylactic/ anti-inflamatory agent) This has been found to help increase the pfts. In hind sight, and my 19 year old agrees, better pulmonary hygiene and exercise would have been the best RX to keeping his lung in peak form. So, yes, I would say this has been the normal course for our son's care. I felt, and agree that when it was time to get down to business, they did. Over use of antibiotics is a big cause of these resistent strains and they often feel if things are asymptomatic why treat and create a resistant culture. When she needs those meds for an exacerbation they can turn to them and have success in cleaning things up. Stay in touch.
Hello to the last poster,So helpful to read other peoples experiences.My son is only 1 year old and he always cultures Staph, however recently he cultured in the upper resp area Pseudomonas.He was extremely well at the time so fortunately we got onto them swiftly and he is being treated with Tobi.He have also made a decision to stop treating him for the Staph because he cultures it so often without symptoms it is a overruse of the antibiotics.I was at first nervous about this but after reading your post see that it really does make sense, as it isn't worth ressistance when he really does need them.We find out in a few weeks if the Tobi treatment has been successful but the doctors are confident that it will be. ( I certainly hope so!).He has never had a chest infection yet so I guess we are doing ok for the time being.Any more wonderful years of experience from another mother would be really appreciated!My email is mrlambert@clear.net.nzThanksRebekah Mother to Matt 12mths WCF
Reply to last poster: Good luck with the Tobi -- you have reason to be optomistic! My daughter cultured positive for pseudemonas for the first time at the end of February. She started Tobi and her next culture a month later was negative! So apparently it was effective! The doctor is keeping her on the Tobi for 2 more months, until she has 3 consecutive negative cultures, but he says it's not likely the pseud will show up. Let us know what happens!