Cross-infections in Cystic Fibrosis

Paz Arizti is a doctor in biology and mother of a 22 year old boy with Cystic Fibrosis. With her training and experience lived within her own family, Paz is a fundamental support for the families of the Cystic Fibrosis Balearic Association and the Respiralia Foundation.
In this informative capsule he tells us how a cross-infection protocol should be in an association or entity attended by people with Cystic Fibrosis.
Cystic Fibrosis is not a contagious disease, but, nevertheless, if a person with CF has a certain bacterium and interacts with another person with CF who does not have it, it is very probable that there is a cross infection between them.
The reason is simple. The fact that the mucus accumulated in the airways of people with Cystic Fibrosis is thick makes its expulsion difficult, since the cilia are not able to mobilize them.
This accumulation of mucus is the perfect habitat for the colonization of bacteria, so the probability that the bacteria will settle in is very high. On the contrary, in a healthy person the cilia will be able to do their job and the bacteria will leave the body without too many problems.
Therefore, having healthy habits, especially in people with Cystic Fibrosis, will help to avoid this situation.
We can highlight the frequent washing of hands with normal or hydroalcoholic soap, keeping a distance of 2 meters from another person with CF or another person with respiratory symptoms, coughing into the elbow and, very importantly, notifying the team of professionals of the results of the sputum analysis. This is of great importance if the infection is caused by any of these three bacteria: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), Burkholderia cepacia or Mycobacterium Abscesus. In these cases, neither people with CF with this infection nor their families should participate in any activity or service of our entities, both outside and in our facilities, so the service is provided at home.
Paz Arizti tells us about her experience with the infection of her son, Dani Rio, with Mycobacterium Abscesus (Here you can watch the capsule we recorded with Dani in 2021: • Superarse ante las adv... ).
In February 2019 he was detected with this mycobacterium. After suffering a health slump that almost cost him his life and 3 years of very aggressive antibiotic treatment, in the fourth year he started to become negative for mycobacteria. While our cross-infection protocol would have allowed them to rejoin after one year of being negative, the family themselves decided to wait another year to make sure that, after completing the antibiotic treatment, the mycobacterium did not reappear.
Today, 5 years after the detection of this bacterium, the family returns to the activity of the Respiralia Group with total normality.
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