Question: My father is in an aged care facility and on a visit to hospital he was found to have golden staph. I am now worried that on visiting him I may have become colonized as I have read where you can be colonized and have no symptoms. I cleaned my hands on arrival and kissed him when leaving but cannot rememver if I cleaned my hands on leaving, as I was no aware at that time how I could then spread it to others and that it could cause a life threatening event or even death. I am now worried that if I am colonized I could spread it and I have become really focused on my nose worrying that if I am colonized there and touch it without thinking I could spread this lethal infection, as I have read that it can be spread by touching your nose and then spreading the bacteria to everything you touch. I am especially concerned when cleaning my face and putting make up on as I feel every time I touch my nose I should wash my hands, which is really time consuming, as I so worried about being a carrier and spreading it to others, even though I don't have any evidence that I am a carrier. I know I can have a test but I have read where you can be negative and contract it at a later date. Other members of my family who have more conntact with my father have suggested I should not worry about it until I have evidence that I may be indeed a carrier, and just practice normal hygiene as I always did, but since rading about the implications of this bacteria I am really concerned that I will cause someone to become reallly ill or even die. I really dislike the fact that I can have such a deadly bacteria living inside my nose, which is so easily touched without thinking, so I feel now I must really aware all the time and this is making me quite anxious where I feel I cannot relax as I must be always making sure that area is not touched.

I am 58 yrs old married. I don't have any other symptoms or any other health problems that I am aware of. I would be about 5 months since I visited my father. I think what worries me is that I have a tendency towards ocd, and try to keep it under control for in the past I have had worries about germs and I have managed to cutrtail it, by realizing that I don't need to be washing my hands all the time as contact with germs can build up strong immunity and that I was being irrational, but reading the information on line about staph a has really scared me as it keeps suggesting that I should wash my hands frequently as anyone can be a carrier of this bacteria. I find washing my hands quite stressful as I have to make sure I do it right and have learnt to live with this. The information is almost suggesting that washing your hands constantly 'is a good thing as this can be picked up from anywhere and you could be guilty of causing harm or even death and the only way you can be sure is by frequently washing your hands. I have prcticed normal hygiene apart from not realizing that you had to wash your hands after coughing or sneezing I .though iit was only essential when you had an obvious infection, but now I have read that you must do ot in case you are a carrier of some bacteria or other. I feel a source of contamination and cannot seem to rationalize this. No one else seems to be to worried, but I feel maybe they are ignorant and don't realized the implications. I feel I have to be constantly aware of all this unless I am being negligent and irresponsibe. I feel responsibility for making sure I don't cause an illness for someone I might not even know and they will pick up germs that I have spread. I know it is irrational but I can't help thinking like tihis, because of all the information I have read about bacteria and how it operates.