Offensive linesman Carl Nicks was drafted
into the NFL by the New Orleans Saints in the 2009 season, starting all 16
regular season games and helping the Saints win their first Super Bowl title.
In 2013, Nicks signed a five-year $47.5 million deal with the rival Tampa Bay
Buccaneers, the start of an unarguably bright career. That same year, however,
Nicks contracted a potentially deadly infection that required surgery and
benched him for the season. While he didn’t directly attribute his decision to
the infection, the guard in June reached a $3 million settlement agreement with
Buccaneers and recently announced his decision to “step away from the game.”
Early in the 2013 season Nicks suffered a toe
injury as part of a Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus areus (MRSA) infection
he and two other teammates, Lawrence Tynes and Johnthan Banks, contracted at
the Buccaneers facility. Fast-forward to date and Nicks has indefinitely left
the football field. Tynes’ football career also appears to be over, and Banks
is expected to compete for a starting job.
Nicks’ recent settlement and departure of the
game corrals MRSA back into the spotlight, as it should be. MRSA is a bacterial
infection that according to the Mayo Clinic has become resistant to antibiotics
commonly used to treat ordinary staph infections. While the majority of
infections occur in hospitals or healthcare settings, MRSA can be found in
community settings that involve crowding or skin-to-skin contact and/or share
equipment such as schools, daycares, locker rooms and gyms.
Good personal hygiene such as frequent
hand/body washing, not sharing personal items like towels or razors, and
keeping wounds clean and covered reduces the risk of MRSA infection. In
hospitals, the same prevention practices can reduce MRSAs and other Hospital
Acquired Infections (HAIs) by up to 70%, though the annual costs of treating
hospitalized MRSA patients are still estimated to be between $3.2 billion and
$4.2 billion in the United States alone.
MRSA-infected patients are likely to spend
three times as long in a hospital stay at three times the cost, and are five
times more likely to die than an uninfected patient. The statistics reveal a
dire need for early detection of MRSA, though no such cost-effective device is
currently available.
Under an agreement with leading European
sensor developer Sgenia Group, Spain-based Zenosense is working to fill this
medical need, developing an MRSA detection device designed to act like a “smoke
detector” for MRSA. The system is expected to detect MRSA in the environment or
infected patient, even before a patient demonstrates any obvious symptoms.
After the alert, healthcare personnel can take appropriate measures to
quarantine and eliminate the bacteria.
The Zenosense device utilizes Sgenia’s
established programming and patent-pending hardware, operating a single sensor
to perform an infinite number of scans and creating tens of thousands of
“virtual sensors.” Zenosense’s intention is that the device will be worn by
individuals and placed in numerous sensitive areas in the healthcare setting.
Heading up the Zenosense team is a management
team strongly experienced in high-level marketing in the medical sector.
Zenosense is also supported by a scientific/development team of qualified
personnel with extensive knowledge and experience in the development of
sensors.
The potential for Zenosense’s MRSA detection
device is huge. Not just for the company, but for the public masses as well.
The device has the potential to not only provide the healthcare system with
billions of dollars in savings, but more importantly has the potential to save
human lives. While it may be too late for the football careers of Nicks and
Tynes, the threat of MRSA on the athletic field may have finally met its match.
For more information, visit:
www.zenosense.net
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