By RANDAL YAKEY
Of The Oakland Press
Jennifer Frescura of Highland Township wonders if the staph infection that almost killed her will cause her daughter irreparable harm. She's had 12 infections, and the problem never seems to leave her family alone.
"I couldn't get out of bed. I had to have surgery twice. I'm scarred all over," Frescura said. "My husband had his last episode a month and a half ago. I think it's still in our home."
Frescura's 8-year-old daughter, Lindsey, was diagnosed with the MRSA infection earlier this year.
"I think she got it from me," said Frescura, a registered nurse. Her daughter continues to be monitored for new outbreaks.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections, which are potentially deadly, are now responsible for an estimated 12 million outpatient visits each year for skin infections, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC says most MRSA cases are contracted in hospital settings. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that MRSA infections are more common, both in and out of hospitals, than experts had once thought. More people died in 2005 from MRSA infections in the United States than from AIDS, the journal noted.
In Oakland County, a student in South Lyon was recently diagnosed with MRSA. A Southfield student and a student from Rochester Hills also were reported to have contracted staph infections. Ten football players from Troy High School received medical treatment, though just one was confirmed to have a staph infection. After the staph infections were reported, school districts rushed to bring in cleaning crews to scrub the walls and furniture.
"They need to test each student and not just clean the schools and throw the kids back in," Frescura said. "The infection could still be in a child's nose. They can clean the school all they want, but a child could bring it in with them the very next day."
In the JAMA study, researchers found that 58.4 percent of MRSA infections from July 2004 through December 2005 were found in community health care settings; 26.6 percent were in hospitals; 13.7 percent were infections not associated with health care facilities; and 1.3 percent could not be classified.
"This is something that you can get anywhere anytime," Frescura said. "It going to be a bigger epidemic."
The CDC already has deemed the MRSA outbreak an "epidemic" in portions of the country.
Jeff Hageman, an epidemiologist in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion for the CDC, blamed the increase on rising numbers of infections -- a trend that probably has been under way for several years -- and greater awareness of the problem.
"MRSA is epidemic in some regions of the country," he said. "The highest rates are in the Southern parts of the U.S., including Atlanta, Los Angeles and Texas. We first began noticing MRSA in 1999, when there were four child deaths in Minnesota and North Dakota."
Frescura said it started for her family last year, at the end of June. "It was on one of my husband, Richard's, legs," she said. "By the end of June, I got an abscess. It was drained but not (tested to see what it was). I have had MRSA 12 times in 12 different areas since June of '06, and have been on any number of antibiotics. My husband has had it five times and my daughter has had it once.
"I still can't get rid of it," Frescura continued. "All I have to do is cut myself or damage my skin in any way, and it will show up again. I had to go to a clinic every day for two months to take an IV, and it still didn't take it away."
Frescura said she went from doctor to doctor to find out what she had and none could help her until, finally, an infectious disease specialist diagnosed her with MRSA.
"They just said no and that it wasn't a big anything but a mild infection," Frescura said. "I ended up with a bone infection and thought I was going to die."
The CDC admitted it did not know exactly why some of the infections progress into a life-threatening disease.
"My doctor said my form is so aggressive that they don't know if they'll ever be able to get it under control," Frescura said. "I have the community MRSA. I really don't know where we I got it. I could have picked it up in the grocery store standing in line. Mine is much more severe than my husband."
Enter the superjuice
Thailand, the Moluccas and the Sunda Islands are home to a plant that some claim has an effect on MRSA.
The mangosteen fruit tree -- Garcinia mangostana -- produces a purple fruit with white sections inside that peel much like a tangerine. The tree is small and takes seven to 10 years to start bearing fruit, but can reach heights of about 30 feet. The mangosteen is not a mango.
Carl Knaus, 65, owner of a Milford-based advertising agency, said the fruit of the mangosteen tree helped dissipate his MRSA infection. "I'm not a kook," Knaus said. "I know it doesn't sound right, but I tested myself three different times and it works. The company wanted me to sell this stuff but I told them I couldn't because it's too important and there would be a credibility issue."
Knaus said he is making no money off any mangosteen juice product. "I contracted MRSA and wound up in Huron Valley Hospital," Knaus said. "The next thing I know, I was in the hospital to have surgery done to get rid of this thing. They told me it was MRSA and it didn't respond to antibiotics. I went to outpatient and I had this IV stuck in me for 10 days.
"At one point, the doctor pulled me aside and said I need to take these high-powered pills and if I didn't the MRSA was going to come back," Knaus said.
Knaus said he is anti-drug and didn't want to take the drug prescribed to him by his doctors. He turned to the mangosteen juice instead. "I bought one bottle for about $40," Knaus said. "I took 9 ounces a day and (the infection) started to shrink. I ran out and got two more bottles, and after seven days it was gone. Everybody is telling me this MRSA is resistant and this juice makes it go away."
Dr. Amod Tootla practices general surgery in Bloomfield Hills, Grand Blanc and Rochester Hills and has been in the profession for 45 years. Tootla said the fruit of the mangosteen has been used as a folk medicine for years and, though he's careful not to call it a cure, he believes the mangosteen fruit can be beneficial to those with MRSA. "The Western societies have paid little attention to folk medicines," Tootla said.
Tootla said key active ingredients called xanthones are found in mangosteen juice. Xanthones are biologically active chemicals found in a few tropical plants. Current research on xanthones suggests they are beneficial in helping fight many conditions including allergies; microbial, fungus and viral infections; high cholesterol; inflammation; skin disorders; gastrointestinal disorders; and fatigue, Tootla said.
Tootla said xanthones have been found to support and enhance the body's immune system, and exhibit strong antioxidant activity. "I'm not saying we don't need drugs. We do," Tootla said. "We should look at all our alternatives."
Tootla said there also needs to be studies on the mangosteen plant. Tootla said there have been studies on the mangosteen fruit in Southeast Asia, but it has not been extensively studied in the United States.
"There have been a lot of studies on this, but in Japan, India, Indonesia, Thailand," Tootla said. "There are a lot of natural things that can benefit but in the Western world we ignore them."
Dr. Michael Seidman, medical director of the Henry Ford Center for Integrative Medicine in Novi, said one must be "very careful" in making any kind of claim about the beneficial effects of the mangosteen fruit. "Mangosteen is a fruit and it has a great deal of xanthones, which have antioxidant properties that may have some antibacterial properties," Seidman agreed. But he noted there have not been any scientific studies to show that mangosteen cures anything.
"Is it possible that *mangosteen cured MRSA? Probably not," Seidman said. "Is it possible that the ingredients in mangosteen can help fire up their immune system so people don't die or something? My answer is sure, it's possible."
Contact staff writer Randal Yakey at (248) 745-4631 or randal.yakey@oakpress.com.
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For more info on mangosteen, visit: Mangosteen Juice
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*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
