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Drug resistance: Could these onions help us win the war? Boston University Staphylococcus aureus belongs to the family Staphylococcaceae. It is a facultatively anaerobic, nonmotile, gram positive cocci bacteria that forms irregular clusters. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus MRSA is a type of staph bacteria that is resistant to certain antibiotics called beta-lactams.
These antibiotics include methicillin and other more common antibiotics such as oxacillin, penicillin, and amoxicillin. In the community, most MRSA infections are skin infections. More severe or potentially life-threatening MRSA infections occur most frequently among patients in healthcare settings.
MRSA infections can also occur in healthy people who have not recently been in the hospital. Most of these MRSA infections are on the skin, or less commonly, in the lung. People who may be at risk are:. It is normal for healthy people to have staph on their skin. Many of us do. Most of the time, it does not cause an infection or any symptoms. This is called "colonization" or "being colonized. A sign of a staph skin infection is a red, swollen, and painful area on the skin. Pus or other fluids may drain from this area.
It may look like a boil. These symptoms are more likely to occur if the skin has been cut or rubbed, because this gives the MRSA germ a way to enter your body. Symptoms are also more likely in areas where there is more body hair, because the germ can get into hair follicles. MRSA infection in people who are in health care facilities tends to be severe.
These infections may be in the bloodstream, heart, lungs or other organs, urine, or in the area of a recent surgery. Some symptoms of these severe infections may include:.
A cotton swab is used to collect a sample from an open skin rash or skin sore. Or, a sample of blood , urine , sputum , or pus from an abscess may be collected. The sample is sent to a lab to test for identification of which bacteria are present, including staph.
If staph is found, it will be tested to see which antibiotics are and are not effective against it. Healthy people, including children and pregnant women, are not usually at risk of MRSA infections. Having MRSA on your skin does not cause any symptoms and does not make you ill. You will not usually know if you have it unless you have a screening test before going into hospital. If you need to go into hospital and it's likely you'll be staying overnight, you may have a simple screening test to check your skin for MRSA before you're admitted.
This is normally done at a pre-admission clinic or a GP surgery. A nurse will run a cotton bud swab over your skin so it can be checked for MRSA. Swabs may be taken from several places, such as your nose, throat, armpits, groin or any damaged skin. This is painless and only takes a few seconds. If you're not carrying MRSA, it's unlikely you'll be contacted about the result and you should follow the instructions from the hospital.
You may need treatment to remove the bacteria to reduce your risk of getting an infection or spreading the bacteria.
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