MRSA- What you should know
MRSA infection is caused by Staphylococcus aureus bacteria — often called "staph." MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It's a strain of staph that's resistant to the broad-spectrum antibiotics commonly used to treat it. MRSA can be fatal.
Most MRSA infections occur in hospitals or other health care settings, such as nursing homes and dialysis centers. It's known as health care-associated MRSA, or HA-MRSA. Older adults and people with weakened immune systems are at most risk of HA-MRSA.
Staph skin infections, including MRSA, generally start as small red bumps that resemble pimples, boils or spider bites. These can quickly turn into deep, painful abscesses that require surgical draining. Sometimes the bacteria remain confined to the skin. But they can also penetrate into the body, causing potentially life-threatening infections in bones, joints, surgical wounds, the bloodstream, heart valves and lungs.
Causes:
MRSA is a strain of staph that's resistant to the broad-spectrum antibiotics commonly used to treat it.
Staph infections
Staph bacteria are normally found on the skin or in the nose of about one-third of the population. If you have staph on your skin or in your nose but aren't sick, you are said to be "colonized" but not infected. Healthy people can be colonized and have no ill effects. However, they can pass the germ to others.
Staph bacteria are generally harmless unless they enter the body through a cut or other wound, and even then they often cause only minor skin problems in healthy people. However, staph infections can cause serious illness. This most often happens in older adults and people who have weakened immune systems, usually in hospitals and long term care facilities.
Although the survival tactics of bacteria contribute to antibiotic resistance, humans bear most of the responsibility for the problem. Leading causes of antibiotic resistance include:
- Unnecessary antibiotic use
- Antibiotics in food and water
- Germ mutation
Risk factors:
Because hospital and community strains of MRSA generally occur in different settings, the risk factors for the two strains differ.
- Risk factors for community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA): Sharing towels or athletic equipment. CA-MRSA has spread among athletes sharing razors, towels, uniforms or equipment.
- Having a weakened immune system. People with weakened immune systems, such as those living with HIV/AIDS, are more likely to have severe CA-MRSA infections.
- Association with health care workers. People who are in close contact with health care workers are at increased risk of serious staph infections.
Risk factors for health care-associated MRSA (HA-MRSA)
- A current or recent hospitalization. MRSA remains a concern in hospitals, where it can attack those most vulnerable — older adults and people with weakened immune systems, burns, surgical wounds or serious underlying health problems. This is particularly true if you have a hospital stay of more than 14 days. A 2007 report from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology estimated that 46 out of every 1,000 people hospitalized are infected or colonized with MRSA.
- Living in a long term care facility. MRSA is also prevalent in these facilities. Carriers of MRSA have the ability to spread it, even if they’re not sick themselves.
- Invasive devices. People who are on dialysis, are catheterized, or have feeding tubes or other invasive devices are at higher risk.
- Recent antibiotic use. Treatment with fluoroquinolones (ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin or levofloxacin) or cephalosporin antibiotics can increase the risk of HA-MRSA.
When to seek medical advice
Keep an eye on minor skin problems — pimples, insect bites, cuts and scrapes. If wounds become infected, see your doctor.
- Signs and symptoms of a wound infection
- Redness, warmth and tenderness of the wound
- Pus — a yellowish-white fluid that may have a foul smell
- Fever
Ask to have any skin infection tested for MRSA before starting antibiotic therapy. Some drugs that treat ordinary staph aren't effective against MRSA, and their use could lead to serious illness and more resistant bacteria.
More in depth information on MRSA can be found at:
www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/ar_MRSA.html
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