What Is Mersa
Here you will find the basic facts on What Is Mrsa Infection Symtoms And Treatments
Mayo Clinic:
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. More recently, another type of MRSA has occurred among otherwise healthy people in the wider community. This form, community-associated MRSA, or CA-MRSA, is responsible for serious skin and soft tissue infections and for a serious form of pneumonia.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a type of staph bacteria that does not react to certain antibiotics and will normally cause skin infections, but MRSA can also cause other infections— including pneumonia. MRSA can be fatal.
According to the CDC;
MRSA is resistant to antibiotics, including several different antibiotics such as penicillin, oxacillin, and amoxicillin (Amoxil, Dispermox, Trimox). HA-MRSA are often also resistant to tetracycline (Sumycin), erythromycin (E-Mycin, Eryc, Ery-Tab, PCE, Pediazole, Ilosone), and clindamycin (Cleocin). Since these strong drugs are not effective with MRSA, these infections are sometimes called Multidrug-Resistant Organisms (MDROs). Staph infections, including MRSA, occur most often among people in hospitals and healthcare facilities (such as nursing homes and dialysis centers) who have weakened immune systems. The infection can be spread by skin-to-skin contact, sharing or touching a personal item with someone with infected skin, or touching a surface or item that has been in contact with someone with MRSA.
How is MRSA infection transmitted?
There are two major ways people become infected with MRSA. The first is physical contact with someone who is either infected or is a carrier (people who are not infected but are colonized with the bacteria on their body) of MRSA. The second way is for people to physically contact MRSA on any objects such as door handles, floors, sinks, or towels that have been touched by an MRSA-infected person or carrier. Normal skin tissue in people usually does not allow MRSA infection to develop; however, if there are cuts, abrasions, or other skin flaws such as psoriasis (a chronic skin disease with dry patches, redness, and scaly skin), MRSA may proliferate.
MRSA bacteria are usually spread through skin-to-skin contact with someone who has an MRSA infection or who is colonised by the bacteria. The bacteria can also spread through contact with towels, sheets, clothes, dressings or other objects that have been used by someone colonised or infected with MRSA. MRSA can survive for long periods on objects or surfaces such as door handles, sinks, floors and cleaning equipment.
MRSA infections that occur in otherwise healthy people who have not been recently (within the past year) hospitalized or had a medical procedure (such as dialysis, surgery, catheters) are known as community-associated MRSA infections (CA-MRSA). These infections are usually skin infections such as abscesses, boils, and other pus-filled lesions, but these infections may also lead to more serious illness, such as pneumonia.
Symptoms Of Mrsa
The symptoms of an MRSA infection will depend on what part of the body is infected. MRSA can infect a range of body tissues and organs.
Most staph infections, including the MRSA virus, will grow as a bump or infected area on the skin. You should look for skin that is:
- Red
- Swollen
- Painful
- Warm to the touch
- Full of pus or other drainage
- Accompanied by a fever
Boils – infection of the hair follicles, Abscesses - pockets of pus under the skin, Styes – infection of the eyelid glands, Carbuncles – large pus-filled lumps under the skin, Cellulitis – infection of the deep layer of the skin and the fat and tissues that lie beneath, Impetigo – a highly contagious skin infection that produces blisters.
MRSA-infected wound will become red, swollen and tender, with yellow pus seeping from it. Skin ulcers, such as pressure ulcers, are often sites of infection. One major problem with MRSA is that occasionally the skin infection can spread to almost any other organ in the body. When this happens, more severe symptoms develop. MRSA that spreads to internal organs can become life-threatening.
Fever, chills, low blood pressure, joint pains, severe headaches, shortness of breath, and “rash over most of the body” are symptoms that need immediate medical attention, especially when associated with skin infections. Some CA-MRSA and HA-MRSA infections become severe, and complications such as endocarditis, necrotizing fasciitis, osteomyelitis, sepsis, and death may occur.
Mrsa Bloodstream infection
If MRSA bacteria enter into the bloodstream from your skin, they can affect almost any part of the body. They can cause:
- Septicaemia (blood poisoning)
- Septic shock (widespread infection of the blood that leads to a fall in blood pressure and organ failure)
- Septic arthritis (severe joint problems)
- Osteomyelitis (bone marrow infection)
- Abscesses deep within the body
- Meningitis
- Pneumonia
- Endocarditis (infection of the heart lining)
Multi Drug Resistant Organisms
What are multidrug-resistant organisms?
They are bacteria and other microorganisms that have developed resistance to antimicrobial drugs. Common examples of these organisms include:
MRSA – methicillin/oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
VRE – vancomycin-resistant enterococci
ESBLs – extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (which are resistant to cephalosporins and monobactams)
PRSP – penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae
MRSA and VRE are the most commonly encountered multidrug-resistant organisms in patients residing in non-hospital healthcare facilities, such as nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. PRSP are more common in patients seeking care in outpatient settings such as physicians’ offices and clinics, especially in pediatric settings.
Treating MRSA Infection
MRSA infection control, you will be given antibiotics that the bacteria have not yet become resistant to.
Most MRSA infections can be treated with the following antibiotics: vancomycin or teicoplanin, which are normally given by an injection or intravenously into your vein, or linezolid, which can be given into a vein or swallowed.
You will usually require treatment for Mrsa in the hospital. You may be moved to a private room or to a room with others who have the bacteria, to stop the MRSA from spreading. You may need to continue your treatment for Mrsa for several weeks at home.
Preventing Mrsa
Hospital staff, patients and hospital visitors can take simple hygiene measures to help prevent the spread of MRSA and stop infection. No direct contact with skin, clothing, and any items that come in contact with either MRSA patients or MRSA carriers is the best way to avoid MRSA infection. In many instances, this situation is simply not practical because such infected individuals or carriers are not immediately identifiable.
What people can do is to treat and cover (for example, antiseptic cream and a Band-Aid) any skin breaks and use excellent hygiene practices (for example, hand washing with soap after personal contact or toilet use, washing clothes that potentially came in contact with MRSA patients or carriers, and using disposable items when treating MRSA patients). Also available at most stores are antiseptic solutions and wipes to both clean hands and surfaces that may contact MRSA. These measures help control the spread of MRSA.
In the past, hospitals were focused on MRSA and developed their prevention methods on MRSA. During a 24-month period, there were 847 cases of C. difficile infections in the 28 hospitals and the rate of C. difficile infection was 25 percent higher than the rate of infection due to MRSA.
C.Diff’s resistance to antibiotics allows it to spread easily through hospital. In fact, the drugs can actually increase the risk of getting the bug.
