What is MRSA and Why Should We Care About It?

Years ago, getting sick was easy. Go to the doctor, get a prescription for antibiotics, in 7-10 days, your healed. Then, penicillin could wipe out just about any infection. Those days are in the past. Now a days, there are practically a different antibiotic for each individual illness. Medical Science has advanced within a relatively small amount of time.

Disadvantages to the numerous antibiotics are new infections. Bacteria tend to learn and evolve. Within the last couple of decades, infections are getting harder to treat. One particular infection is methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus or MRSA. MRSA is a highly contagious bacteria that's spread by contact or coughing. You can get MRSA by touching someone who is infected or from touching an object that has been touched by an infected person. This bacteria is immune to several common antibiotics. It changes and adapts, becoming very difficult to treat.

In the past, people with low immune systems living in crowded conditions, such as hospitals and nursing homes were infected. Now it's showing up in healthy people that haven't been hospitalized.

Most of the time, MRSA isn't serious, affecting the skin only. There's an increase in children to young adults with boils or sores that are MRSA infected. If not treated, it can be life threatening. Most cases of MRSA are treated with antibiotics such as, vancomycin, bactrim, or zyvox. These antibiotics still work well against MRSA, but not in all cases.

If you have a wound that isn't healing properly, a productive cough that isn't resolving, or notice a boil or rash that's worsening, visit you doctor. The doctor should culture the affected area and run lab test. Results should be known within a couple of days.

The single most important preventative from getting MRSA and other infections is hand washing. We use our hands for everything, touching, scratching, etc. If we wash our hands more often, the chance of getting these infections will decrease drastically.