Your Guide to Symptoms and Treatment

Staph aureus bacteria (the SA part of MRSA – known to some as staff infection) is carried by 1 in 3 people. Many people become mrsa carriers following mrsa colonization in the everyday activities of life. Most have no symptoms and only become ill when the mrsa bacteria find their way into a wound or graze. Multi-drug resistant staph emerges (MRSA) as antibiotics encounter the rapidly evolving bacteria. Hospital MRSA infections have now touched the lives of  at least 1% of the population in many countries. Community Acquired MRSA is a different MRSA type. It often causes skin infections but is treatable by more drugs. It does however spread faster and is liable to do more damage than the hospital strains if it takes hold in a persons system. MRSA is also known as mersa, mersa staph, mersa staff, mursa, merca, staff infection, staph and msra. It is also known as MRSA Virus, despite being a bacteria (Viruses need a host, bacteria can survive on their own)

How do people catch MRSA?
Can you catch MRSA from skin contact?
Is MRSA in the air?
Can you get MRSA from door handles and other surfaces?
Can you get MRSA from hospital equipment?
Can you catch MRSA from animals?
What is the connection between MRSA and drug use?
Can you get MRSA from a sexual partner?
Why are sports teams liable to MRSA?
Why is MRSA a problem in the military?
Is MRSA a problem in prisons?
How does MRSA spread in the family?

Discover the answers that you need to know about MRSA Infection

How is it treated?
There are 3 key treatment regimes that are commonly used.

• For those who are colonised – a nasal treatment and a skin wash. This is often the strategy when MRSA is rare or prior to an operation as a means of preventing infection. Where MRSA is common some doctors will not suggest decolonisation as many will be recolonised within months within the local community. Some deep seated – throat and intestine – colonisation may require drug treatment.
• For those who have a potential or active bloodstream infection – drugs such as Vancomycin, Linezolid or Daptomycin.
• For those with infected wounds – special honey, silver bandages, garlic preparations and tea tree oil are all believed to be effective in killing MRSA in a wound. Many who have the skin infections common with CA MRSA simply need incision and drainage of the infected area and good hygiene while it heals. Antibiotics are not always needed.

How can it be prevented
The media often focus on clean hospitals and clean hands as a key to combating MRSA. Others believe that this will only cut cases by 30% and that a diverse strategy is vital and will include:

• Clean Wards - especially surfaces and keyboards.
• Staff Screening - are they super carriers?
• Patient Screening – so that they can be decolonised and to avoid self infection.
• Hospital Equipment - because it can take the infection deep into a wound.
• Air Hygiene – to help prevent nasal colonisation
• Hand Hygiene - to prevent transport from patient to patient via staff hands
• Antibiotic Restraint – because resistance grows from over prescription
• The Food Chain – is resistance also provoked by over use in animals?
• Patient Isolation – this helps lessen the potential risk of airborne infection
• Lifestyle Choices – needle injected drugs and multiple sexual partners help spread chronic illnesses that emerge slowly.

What can I do

• Stay informed – this site and several others can help you do this. The A-Z guide in the right hand column will give you in depth information on over 50 aspects of MRSA from over 500 articles, news items and academic papers.
• Ask others via our MRSA Watch forum
• Act locally by becoming involved in patient advocacy or patient/hospital forums
• Seek justice – do you need to take legal action because of negligence or do we all need to speak up for communities who are being hit by CA MRSA but are underinsured and often powerless.