Superinfection-Staph Infection (MRSA)

What is MRSA or Staph Infection?

MRSA is the abbreviation for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Basically, MRSA is a strain of Staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to antibiotics.

What is Staphylococcus Aureus?

Staphylococcus aureus is a part of the normal flora that we have on our skin. These bacteria grow well on the skin and many people carry them in their nose through nasal secretions. However, a Staph infection develops when you have an open wound and the bacteria enter into this wound. The general person has a healthy immune system and can fight off the infection without the use of antibiotics. However, the person with a weakened immune system can not fight off the infection and needs help with antibiotics. Staphylococcus aureus bacteria have been known to cause boils, abscesses, impetigo, septic wounds, heart-valve problems and toxic shock syndrome. In extreme cases, it can result in death.

How do you get a Staph infection?

Staph infections used to be common ground only to negligence in hospitals. Meaning, if you stayed at a hospital, a Nurse or a doctor didn’t use proper hygiene (hand washing), they could pass it on from patient to patient. Another way you could get a Staph infection in the hospital is from poor wound treatment and bedridden patients not being turned properly. These bedridden patients would develop some pretty nasty bed sores, which turned into Staph infections.

Now Staph infections have grown into our communities. I will explain later how they got there. You can really get a Staph infection from anywhere now. Kids can pick one up from school in places such as; the gym, or the locker room, and in the classroom. You can get a Staph infection from a co-worker or just by touching some contaminated thing at your job.

How did MRSA to our communities?

Have you ever been to the doctor with a little cough or sneeze; or taken your child to the doctor for a cold? You sit there and wait for an hour then your name is called. You go into the room and the Physician comes into the room for five minutes. He looks at your throat, and in your ears, and then proceeds to write you a prescription for an antibiotic. This is how we have MRSA in our communities.

Before a prescription for an antibiotics is written, the doctor is supposed to run a series of tests to determine if you have a viral (not treated with antibiotics) or bacterial (treated with antibiotics) infection. When the physician fails to do the proper test to make a diagnosis, a major problem follows. The patients taking the antibiotic when they did not really need it, becomes immune to that antibiotic. Therefore, later, when the person really does need the antibiotic for a bacterial infection, the antibiotic is not effective in treating the cause.

Can MRSA be Treated?

Although MRSA is resistant to a number of antibiotics, it can be treated with a few of them. The three antibiotics used to treat MRSA are Vancomycin, Teicoplanin, and Mupirocin.

Vancomycin and Teicoplanin are used to treat MRSA for patients with weakened immune systems. They are given through injections or intravenous drips in the hospital.

Mupirocin is used to treat people that are at a risk for MRSA. The healthy individual is tested by the use of a swab on their skin or inside their nasal cavity. If the person has MRSA, the patient applies the Mupirocin to the skin of the affected areas. This prevents the infection from spreading to other areas of the body or being transferred to other people.

What can be done to prevent MRSA?

There are many things that can be done to prevent MRSA. First of all, if you are sick and your physician writes you a prescription for an antibiotic without doing the proper tests to confirm this diagnosis, request for the doctor to run the proper test. The physician can do a test using a swab of your skin, a blood test, or a urine test. Furthermore, if you do have a bacterial infection, be sure that you take it properly. Take the antibiotic as prescribed and finish the whole course. If you stop taking the antibiotic just because you feel better, you will allow the bacteria to grow, therefore, the next time you are sick, the antibiotic may not be able to kill off the bacteria.

In the community or in the hospitals there is a simple method to prevent the spread of MRSA. By using proper hand washing methods, we can prevent the spread of MRSA. When at home, wash your hands regularly for at least 20 seconds under warm water. Furthermore, hospital staff can reduce the spread of MRSA by; proper hand washing, using disposable gloves and aprons, and keeping people with MRSA in separate rooms from patients that do not have MRSA.

In summary, MRSA is becoming a growing concern for the overall population. However, we can reduce our chances of becoming infected by following the techniques listed above. Do your part by washing your hands and taking your antibiotics as prescribed.