MRSA is a type of bacteria. This type of bacteria is particularly harmful because it is strongly resistant antibiotic treatments. While MRSA is most often found in people who have recently spent time in a hospital, nursing home, or other medical setting- it can and has been found in perfectly healthy people who have had no reason to suspect that they might have come into contact with this bacteria. Before you get nervous, let’s discuss the two main signs that you may have contracted MRSA.

The first major warning sign of the MRSA bacteria is a visible change in an area of skin. Most MRSA cases that have been reported are surface skin infections, and therefore can be quite visible. You’ll want to look for any notable changes on the surface of the skin. These changes can be anything from blisters to drainage and generally will occur around an open wound, as this is where the bacteria has likely entered your body.

The second warning sign of MRSA is fever. Fever is usually from an unknown source, meaning, you are not sick with any other illness such as the flu or a common cold. If you are experiencing a fever that seems to persist even without other symptoms, it should definitely be a red flag that something is going on inside your body as a fever signals that the body is in some form of distress and trying to rid itself of a virus or infection. Either of this warning signs of MRSA are very serious and should be checked out by your doctor as soon as is possible.

The key to treatment of MRSA is catching the bacteria before it has time to spread even further throughout the body. Even if you do not think you have been exposed to the bacteria, it is still a good idea to visit your doctor to be sure. MRSA is a very serious medical problem and it requires prompt attention and treatment. Experiencing even one of the two symptoms discussed above should warrant a visit to your doctor’s office.

In recent years CA-MRSA has spread quickly across the United States and has become the most common cause of cultured skin infections. Both HA-MRSA and CA-MRSA strains can cause skin infections in jail and prison detainees, soldiers, Native Alaskans and Native Americans, inner-city children and athletes.

Common ways to contract the infection is through skin-to-skin contact, scrapes, cuts, and abrasions. Doctors suggest that sharing personal items like combs, brushes, makeup, cell phones, razors gym towels and other effects of this nature contribute to the spread of the infection and should be curtailed.

Common warning signs in the initial infection stage resemble sores, pimples, boils, spider bites, and excessive swelling around small cuts, scrapes or abrasions. As the MRSA infection progresses the infection worsens into abscesses, puss-filled blisters, or larger, more sensitive sores. Doctors and experts recommend that if you have any sores that will not heal or if those sores are full of pus, see your doctor quickly and ask for a staph infection test to be administered. You should not squeeze the sores or attempt to drain as this is one of several prominent ways to spread the infection. The pus in the sores carries a high concentration of the infection and should be treated with care and cleaned off of the skin or surface if the sore is accidentally squeezed or drained.

Effective cleaning methods include sanitizing the surface with alcohol and quaternary ammonium and decolonization by showering with chlorhexidine or hexachlorophene anti-septic soap from head to toe. Poor hygiene habits are a major contributor to the spread of MRSA, doctors and experts recommend washing your hands regularly, they also recommend that misuse or overuse of antibiotics during MRSA treatment can allow the bacteria to evolve into a new form that is more resistant to clinical drug treatments and that antibiotics should only be taken when necessary.

If you happen to live with someone who is MRSA infected, you are recommended to switch to a alcohol based soap and begin decolonization practices to lessen the chance of being infected.

There are a few treatment options for this disease. The two antibiotics that are normally used first are Bactrim and Vancocin. Other drugs used to treat the infections includ Zyvox, Cleocin, and Levaquin. Several of the drugs used to treat staph infections need to be given intravenously, or in other words, with a shot or IV. Sometimes, these drugs aren’t even required. If it is just a simple skin boil, doctors may just make a cut in it, and drain the fluid. If the patient do happen to get prescribed to any medication, they must never stop dosage of it. If they don’t take all of the medicine, some of the bacteria is able to survive, and then reinfect the person, becoming resistant to the medicine. The bacteria that survives could also infect someone else.

Sometimes, after people are healed from one staph infection, they get another. In this case, many patients are prescribed the medication Cipro, which they must take for three to six months. It is a theory that people who use intravenous drugs are more susceptible to having recurring staph infections. One drug that used to be the main drug used to treat the disease is becoming increasingly known as a failure. Failure rates at 40% have been reported, and poor penetration into the skin cell lining is no good thing at all. One new treatment for MRSA is Rifampin Combination Therapy, which is when Rifampin is combined with either Vanco or Minocycline, which results in supposedly improved outcomes in the clinical trials. Thankfully, there is a way to prevent MRSA from happening, such as making sure to take care of your personal hygiene, and making sure to clean your home as to not leave contaminated items laying about. Also, make sure to keep all openings in the skin covered with a bandage, as this is another way a staph infection may spread. These are only a few of the ways to prevent MRSA.

This should be a relief to many who are very concerned. It’s good to know the facts about such an illness as not to create unnecessary fear. These are five important factors about this infection.

1. It is a bacterial infection.

2. There is a specific test to know whether or not you have this infection.

3. There are specific antibiotics available to treat MRSA, but sometimes they do not work.

4. It is commonly found among elderly people in Nursing Homes and Hospitals, and people with compromised immune systems.

5. It can be transmitted through minor scrapes and cuts, and from person to person. Some of the symptoms include swelling around a wound, pus and fever.

I also found out from my friend that some of the precautions that were taken to prevent this infection from spreading, is that she had to wear a gown, mask and gloves to protect herself and the patient. Often times the patient would be isolated. She and her co-workers also had to wash their hands frequently, to prevent the spread of this infection. Once they took the proper precautions, the infection was under control. Maybe as less and less antibiotics are used unnecessarily, we’ll see less people hospitalized so often with this illness.