Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Infection

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) Definition:

Staphylococcus is group of bacteria, that can cause a multitude of diseases. Staphylococcus that causes furunculosis, pyemia, osteomyelitis, suppuration of wounds, and food poisoning. It is frequently living on the skin or in the nose of a healthy person, that can cause illnesses ranging from minor skin infections. Each year some 500,000 patients in American hospitals contract a staphylococcal infection.

Staph bacteria may also be caused illness directly by infection or indirectly through products they make such as toxins responsible for food poisoning and toxic shock syndrome.Staph infection can be simple and localized, such as with impetigo of the skin.

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) Causes

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus can thereby seed to various areas of the body. This spreading occurs more commonly in persons with abnormally suppressed immune systems. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is almost always spread by direct physical contact, and not through the air. Spread may also occur through indirect contact by touching objects contaminated by the infected skin of a person with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Just as S. aureus can be carried on the skin or in the nose without causing any disease, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus can be carried in this way also.

Today up to 90% of Staphylococcus aureus isolates or strains arc penicillin-resistant, and about 27% of all S. aureus isolates are resistant to methicillin, a penicillin derivative. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization is diagnosed by isolating bacteria from nasal secretions. In individuals where the natural defense system breaks down, such as after an invasive procedure, trauma, or chemotherapy, the normally benign bacteria can invade tissue, proliferate, and cause infection.

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) Symptoms

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections can cause a broad range of symptoms depending on the part of the body that is infected. Sometimes, people may carry methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus without having any symptoms.

The symptoms of the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus may be included:

• Chills
• Fever
• Pimples
• Rashes
• Blisters
• Warmth of the skin
• Redness of the skin
• Swelling of the skin
• Tenderness of the skin

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) Treatments

Depending on how serious your infection is, the doctor may drain your wound, prescribe antibiotic medicine, or hospitalize you.

Although methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus cannot be effectively treated with antibiotics such as methicillin, nafcillin, cephalosporin or penicillin, it can usually be treated with an antibiotic called vancomycin.

Most cases of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) begin as mild skin infections. You may be able to treat these infections without antibiotics by using a minor surgical procedure that opens and drains the sores.