How Is Toxic Shock Syndrome Spread?

Video Transcript

"Hi! I'm Dr. Mieke Lane. I'm an OB-GYN with Cascadia Women's Clinic in Vancouver, Washington. Today, I'm going to speak with you regarding toxic shock syndrome and how it spread. Toxic shock syndrome is a bacterial infection. The bacteria trigger the release of certain toxins and these toxins go on to cause damage with organs in your body. Once you're diagnosed with toxic shock syndrome, it can be treated provided that it's caught early. The way that we can spread toxic shock syndrome is by not washing our hands. Anytime that we may have an intimidated wound such as a cut, a laceration or an abscess and we do a dressing change or we're just doing our daily cleaning of that particular wound. You need to be sure that you're washing your hands. Other ways that this can be spread is the use of high absorbent tampons so you're going to be sure that you're using low absorbent tampons and that you're changing those every 3-4 hours because you never want to leave a tampon in for more than 4 hours at a time.Other ways that toxic shock syndrome can be spread is through the prolong use of a diaphragm. So, you need to keep in mind about the recommendations that your health care provider has given you about when it's time to remove that diaphragm. If you have any further questions or concerns, talk to your health care provider."