NBME 23 Staphylococcus aureus (NBME Answers)

Retired NBME 23 Answers

nbme23/Block 1/Question#10 (reveal difficulty score)
A 13-year-old girl is brought to the office ...
Staphylococcus aureus 🔍 / 📺 / 🌳 / 📖
tags: micro bed_bugs

+13 upvote downvote
submitted by ∗chris07(69)

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Bed bugs themselves are not known to be carriers of illness, but they can leave itchy bites. The girl is likely to scratch these bites, abrade the skin, and thus increase the risk of a staph skin infection (since staph aureus is the most common skin infection pathogen)

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mcl Oh! The article I found said that MRSA has been shown to colonize the saliva of bed bugs for up to like 15 days, and that they isolated MRSA from several specimens. Is it just more likely that the patient scratches it in since staph is e v e r y w h e r e ? +7

chris07 I mean it’s possible. The last review course I took said that it wasn’t associated with anything. It may be, but either way...same answer :) +1

frijoles So bedbugs can't transmit HIV. Cool. #whatareyou #anidiotsandwich +22

anechakfspb @frijoles - Hey if it makes you feel any better I put HIV too, with my reasoning being that they feed on blood...and HIV is transmitted via bodily fluids. Whoops! +4

veryhungrycaterpillar University of Purdue says they can, but over a long time. +

kcyanide101 If they did.... I bet there would have been a cure. +

+7 upvote downvote
submitted by ∗welpdedelp(270)

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I chose this b/c its the most common pathogen for skin infections

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seagull same here +2

sympathetikey Some bowlsheet +15

+6 upvote downvote
submitted by ∗mcl(671)

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So if you didn't h8 bedbugs enough, they can apparently also serve as vectors for drug-resistant bacteria including MRSA HOW FUN IS THAT

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spacepogie SO FUN +3

+3 upvote downvote
submitted by ∗adong(144)

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I don't think you're supposed to know any complicated niche piece of knowledge. You have to infer that the pt has a skin lesion and is therefore prone to skin infections, most commonly from Staph aureus.

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07chess I bet the guy who wrote the question is sitting like "Holly Fuk, I just meant scratching, I didn't know anything about MRSA". And of course, he made poker face in front of colleague test writers with a smile about how he screwed another bunch of us test-takers. +

+0 upvote downvote
submitted by ∗c21ashokkumar(1)

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Because of the bed bugs ability to compromise the skin integrity of its host, and the propensity for S. aureus to invade damaged skin, bed bugs may serve to amplify MRSA infections.

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madamestep "You're more likely to get an odd presentation of a common disease than a typical presentation of a rare one." - My professor. It kind of helps to remind myself of this +

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