Week 4 Books and Wikipedia

1. Reference Section Source:

Descriptive:

·      Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a strain of S. aureus that was discovered in the 1960’s not very long after methicillin started being used as an antibiotic.

·      50 million people worldwide are known to carry the organism, it is commonly found in the skin, nose, blood, and urine.

·      Staphylococcus (Staff) infections, which are common in hospitals are caused by MRSA

·      MRSA has increased drastically since it was discovered and in 2005 more people died from MRSA than HIV/AIDS.

·      There are two types of MRSA, CA-MRSA, community associated and HA-MRSA, health care associated.

·      CA-MRSA affects healthy people that have not been hospitalized in the past year, and causes soft tissue infections. HA-MRSA affects people in nursing homes, hospitals, and dialysis facilities, and causes blood infections and infections from surgical incisions.

·      The last line of defense against MRSA is the antibiotic vancomycin has led to a caused a new resistant bacteria vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus aureus and has caused an increase in MRSA cases.

·      MRSA acquires the gene vanA, which targets the peptide that vancomycin and other related antibiotics normally bind to which causes a genetic mutation in the cell wall and allows the bacteria to invade the antibiotic.

·      The intended audience for this article is the general public, it is written for someone with little or no science background.

·      This article connects with my research topic by providing general information about the topic and has related statistics of mortality and cases reported.

Evaluation:

·      I feel this is a reliable secondary source, it provides high quality articles that are written by experts. I feel the information found in the article is credible.

·      I chose this information because it clearly explained the basic information about my research subject and has statistics regarding deaths and cases that were not available in other sources.

·      I trust the accuracy of this information because it was obtained in a general reference book that is written by experts. It provides a list of sources that was used in writing the information, which are reliable and credible.

·      I believe the information and viewpoint of this reference is non-bias and written to be objective

·      This material is updated and reviewed often and provides a list of changes that have been made and the dates these changes were made. It was last updated in 2012 and was created in 2007.

Citation:

MRSA. (2012). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from                 http://ntserver1.wsulibs.wsu.edu:2987/EBchecked/topic/1090465/MRSA

2. Circulating Section

Descriptive:

·      Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is commonly found in the nose and is the cause of skin infections, hospital infections such as catheter site infections, and pneumonia.

·      The intended audience for this article is someone with a scientific background; it would not be useful for someone without some knowledge in biology or chemistry.

·      This study provides greater detail and scientific information for my research that sources with general information does not provide.

·      This study provides information on MRSA at a cellular level.

Evaluation:

·      This book is a credible source full of research by microbiologists and well referenced.

·      I chose this book for the detailed information and studies provided that focus on detecting antibiotic resistance mechanisms in bacteria. It provides research that previous sources did not in a more scientific approach.

·      I trust the information provided in this book because it is actual studies that were performed and is a primary source of information. All of the research in this book is cited and done by experts in the science community.

·      This book provides non-bias information that is based on actual studies; it has the viewpoint of the scientist that actually did the research. This is good information for my topic, explaining what causes MRSA.

·      It was published in 2009, which provided current and up to date information on my topic.

Citation:

Linsday, J., & Sung, J. (2009). Antibiotic resistant protocols: Second edition. (Vol. 642, pp. 3-11). New York, NY: Humana Press. Retrieved from http://ntserver1.wsulibs.wsu.edu:3152/Full/doi/10.1007/978-1-60327-279-7_1?encCode=TU1JOjFfNy05NzItNzIzMDYtMS04Nzk=&tokenString=LZU/g99Po3b1USDHAHcN8A==

3. Electronic Document for Griffin

Descriptive:

·      There are an estimated 94,000 Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) cases reported each year, with 14% being from the community.

·      MRSA takes about 18,000 lives per year in both the community and healthcare settings.

·      According to the Center of Disease Control (CDC) MRSA is a one of the world’s most pressing health problems.

·      The most effective means of protection and to prevent spreading is to wash hands often and disinfect surfaces often in schools and other public places.

·      The primary route of transmission is person to person direct contact, keeping yourself clean and covering wounds will go a long ways in spreading this disease.

·      This document provides information that is intended for more education people, however a science background is not necessary in order to understand it.

·      This document connects to my research in showing a view towards how MRSA affects the community, what the concerns are, and possible ideas how to prevent it from spreading.

Evaluative:

·      This document is reliable and credible; it is a hearing before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee regarding the community and MRSA.

·      I chose this item because it has information on how MRSA affects the community and what the consequences are for the public.

·      I trust the accuracy of the information in this document because it is taken directly from the notes of the hearing. This document also references data from the Center of Disease Control (CDC), which would be considered a reliable source.

·      This document is somewhat biased on the issues and health concerns of the community. It is written from the actual hearing, however I believe the hearing itself relayed this information to the board emphasizing on community health concerns. This information is good for my research, having a viewpoint of the community and how MRSA affects people.

·      This information was written in 2007 which is a little out of date for the information I need, however does have some statistics that are reported from reliable sources that I find useful.

Citation:

Commitee on Oversight and Government Reform, House of Representatives. (2007). Drug resistant infections in the community: Consequences for public health (43-600). Retrieved from US Government Printing Office website: http://griffin.wsu.edu/search~S12?/gY 4.G 74/7:110-65 (Electronic resource)/gy 4.g 74/ 7 : 110- 65(electronicresource)/-3,-1,0,B/frameset&FF=gy 4.g 74/ 7 : 110- 65(electronicresource)&1,1,

Part 2 of assignment:

Citation:

Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus. (2003, March 06). Retrieved from             http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRSA

1.     What are three strengths of Wikipedia that are evident in your article?

            Provides many links to addition information and definitions that were not in other sources I have used.

            The references provides links to other possible sources for my research

            Had great background information about my topic, summarizing the cause and treatments,      providing links for additional information. It would have been a good starting point for my research.

2.     What are at three weaknesses of Wikipedia that are evident in your article?

            Having access to the many links was information overload and very time consuming.

            Does not provide much scientific information that I need for this topic.

            The information it too summarized, there is not enough detail to for it to be accurate.