The strain of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus known as MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) evolved resistance to the antibiotic methicillin. MRSA can cause serious infections in otherwise healthy people because there are few antibiotics to combat it. MRSA spreads through close contact and usually first appears as a minor skin infection, but it can be fatal. Doctors try to treat MRSA infection without using antibiotics unless it is life-threatening. Good personal hygiene can reduce your risk of MRSA infection.
Transmission
Staphylococcus bacteria (often called staph) normally live in the nose and skin of about 33 percent of people, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. If you harbor staph without showing any symptoms, you are considered "colonized" but not infected. However, you can still transmit the infection to other people through close contact or through sharing items like towels or razors. Staph spreads easily with skin-to-skin contact, especially when skin is scraped or cut.
Most people contract MRSA while in a hospital or nursing home. People with compromised immune systems, skin lesions like burns or surgical incisions, or patients with feeding tubes, dialysis tubes or catheters are especially vulnerable to MRSA infection.
Symptoms
A normal healthy immune system fights off staph infection with only minor symptoms even if it enters the body through a cut in your skin, but MRSA infections can be serious or even fatal.
MRSA-infected skin looks like skin infected with any strain of staph at first: small red bumps often mistaken for spider bites or pimples form on the skin. The area might be red, swollen and painful, or filled with pus. The bumps can quickly develop into deep abscesses that require medical attention. If the MRSA infection penetrates the body through a cut or scrape, it can spread to the bloodstream, bones, heart valves and lungs, where it can cause pneumonia. With an invasive MRSA infection, you might feel short of breath and have a fever and chills.
Treatment and Prevention
By definition, MRSA resists antibiotics such as penicillin, methicillin, amoxicillin and oxacillin. If you have a skin infection that could be staph, ask your doctor to test you for MRSA before you take antibiotics, because the wrong antibiotic can worsen the problem. In cases of MRSA skin infections, your doctor will most likely treat the abscess by draining it under sterile conditions and will avoid prescribing antibiotics. For more serious infections, intravenous infusion of the antibiotic vancomycin can fight MRSA. Doctors use this treatment sparingly because vancomycin is one of the last antibiotics left to treat MRSA, and strains of vancomycin-resistant staph have developed.
You can reduce your risk of contracting MRSA through good hygiene. Wash your hands often or use hand sanitizer, and do not share razors, towels, clothes or athletic gear. If you have a cut or scrape, keep it clean and covered with a sterile dressing until it fully heals.
