You are working at an emergency medical clinic in a rural part of New Mexico. A

Question

You are working at an emergency medical clinic in a rural part of New Mexico. A patient is admitted with a staphylococcal infection of the blood, a septicemia. Most likely the infective agent is Staphylococcus aureus. This is potentially very serious and could lead to death. The patient has a history of panic attacks, which has left her unable to provide a medical history or any other information. As the healthcare worker in charge, you must make the decisions. The only other person working at this isolated clinic, on this dark and stormy night, is a student who has been hired part-time; he has not taken Microbiology yet, but is happy to share his advice freely with you.

Choose one of the letter choices.

The student’s first suggestion is that you give the patient penicillin. However, you tell him that this is a bad idea because

The patient might be allergic to penicillin

Since penicillin is taken orally, it is unable to get to the blood to treat the infection

Penicillin is not broad-spectrum enough for this infection

Penicillin will likely not act against a staphylococcal infection

The patient might be allergic to penicillin

Since penicillin is taken orally, it is unable to get to the blood to treat the infection

Penicillin is not broad-spectrum enough for this infection

Penicillin will likely not act against a staphylococcal infection

Explanation / Answer

The correct answer is option D that is treating patient with Penicillin will likely not act against a staphylococcal infection because over the time, the misuse of penicillin has made the staph resistant to the Penicillin and that is why it is not a good option to treat the patient by Penicillin.

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