Abstract The infection methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been and is a subject of increasing concern among the population and are on the climb. More and more people are becoming resilient to increasingly deadly infection such as pneumonia, septicemia and is associated with a substantial mortality and more different strains of antibiotics are not curing MRSA. Keywords: MRSA, infection, antibiotics, risks What is MRSA and What You Need to Know About It? MRSA which stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria which first emerged as a serious infection in the late 1960’s (Rohde & Ross-Gordon, 2012).
This organism is known for causing major skin infections in addition to many other types of infections (“Mayo 2010A). The term methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is used to illustrate a number of strains to the bacteria that are resistant to a number of antibiotics including methicillin. Staphylococcus aureus is a gram-positive cocci group of bacteria that can live anywhere on the surface of people’s skin and and/or the inside the nose (Rhinehart & Friedman, 2006, p. 10).
S.aureus is an example of a resident organism which has an incubation period of 1-6 hours, duration of illness of 24-48 hours, and can have a sudden onset of severe nausea and vomiting along with diarrhea and fever (Rhinehart & Friedman, 2006, p. 16, 74). MRSA is usually harmless because it can lay dormant for long periods of time and the individual may not even know they are a carrier until they have an outbreak. MRSA can be transmitted by but not limited to skin-to-skin contact from one person to another.
While MRSA skin infections can occur in any individual they are more likely to occur in participants of many types of sports, and more likely to occur in contact sports—such as football, wrestling, and rugby, and can also be found in weight training rooms aswell. MRSA is also found among people in healthcare facilities (such as nursing homes) and hospitals whose patients have a weakened or weaken immune system. MRSA which can most often enter the body through a cut or scrape, can then emerge from there.
Common signs of this infection can include a single red bump that resembles a boil, pustule, a pimple, can even be a cluster of red bumps and many people mistake it for a spider bite. Most MRSA diagnoses start off with the physician treating it as a spider bite; therefore the MRSA is not properly treated. These types of skin infections can commonly occur at sites of visible skin distress and sometimes at areas of the body covered by hair (Mayo Clinic 2010B). According to McMann (2009), MRSA affects about 0. 8%-2. 0% of the U. S. population and these certain people are called MRSA carriers and is increasing yearly (McMann, 2011).—will have to get this citation later left other notes on computer.
If the patient is aware they are a carrier of MRSA one of the major components in the control of the transmission is the early detection of patients who are either colonized or already infected with MRSA (Sherlock, Humphreys & Dolan, 2010). There is a type of MRSA infection that has occurred in the wider community mostly among healthy people is known as community-associated MRSA or CA-MRSA and it often begins as a painful skin boil, which is most likely spread by skin-to-skin contact.
At-risk populations include groups such as: people who live in crowded conditions, high school workers, sports personnel or players, and people who live in crowded conditions (Mayo Clinic, 2010B) Staph can cause skin infections in healthy people and is the most common cause of serious infections in hospital patients. Most of these infections are treated with antibiotics but staph persistently makes copies of itself, providing plenty of opportunity for mutations that strengthen the next generation (Haaman & Dulon, 2012).
Penicillin was then introduced, which was a godsend, and dates back to WWII and killed lots of the staph infections, but then the staph rapidly became resistant to the penicillin, so researchers created methicillin, in hopes of treating this super staph. Within a few years of introducing methicillin, staph learned to develop a new mechanism for becoming resistant to these semi-synthetic penicillin’s which brings us now to methicillin-resistant staph aureus.
Methicillin-resistant staph aureus tends to be resistant to multiple types of antibiotics that we usually like to use to treat staph (Haaman & Dulon, 2012). Disease and death rates appear to be higher for MRSA infections than for infections caused by other S. aureus strains, and researchers in the early 2000’s pointed to MRSA as a frequent, and growing, cause of disease in hospitals and other health-care facilities (“Staphylococcus,” 2012). We like to think of hospitals as safe places where we go to heal, but with many sick people in close proximity with each other, it can be a haven for germs, with the sickest patients being the most vulnerable.
What’s even worse is those healthy people who just enter the hospital for a routine check-up are in danger and are at risk for contracting staph (Haaman & Dulon, 2012). Those that are in the hospital already have intravenous lines, urinary catheters, endotracheal tubes, dialysis catheters and operative wounds so there are a number of ways that staph may enter the patients body’s and puts them at even greater risk (Haaman & Dulon, 2012).
With more people dying in the US from MRSA infections that HIV/AIDS it is very important that when dealing with S. aureus one should always do everything they can to protect themselves by exposing themselves, and by doing this when you come in contact with any type of biological fluids of those that are infected with MRSA one should always wear protective gloves, disposable plastic apron or protective gown (Rohde & Ross-Gordon, 2012). Those individuals who chose not follow the general infection control procedures are more likely to spread this infection via hands and clothes, and can occur in individuals with no prior healthcare exposure (Andersson & Bossum, 2011).
MRSA is currently resistant to several different antibiotics such as oxacillin, penicillin, amoxicillin and are often also resistant to tetracycline, erythromycin and clindamycin. Vancomycin is the current drug of choice for the treatment of MRSA and this drug must be given intravenously or via injection. When Vancomycin is administered it can cause a lengthy hospital stay for the patient dependent upon the degree of infection. Vancomycin also has severe side effects which may be short-lived or permanent and some of them include: hearing loss and toxicity to the kidneys (McMann, 2011).
MRSA may seem to imply that these bacteria are resistant to one specific drug. This is not so, however, the resistant organism; these bacteria are actually resistant to all but one or two of the antibiotics commercially available for their potential treatment. Although S. aureus has been treated with an array of drugs in the penicillin class, methicillin is the drug used to designate the resistance to this class (Rhinehart & Friedman, 2006, p. 89).
MRSA can become dangerous if left untreated, and while it has become resistant to some forms of antibiotics, it is not resilient to all forms. In some cases, the wound of the patient might have to be lanced and drained and in some extreme cases surgery may be required to remove all of the infection (Nasso & Burroway, 2009, p. 70). But the best news is that MRSA is easily preventable by taking the precautions that were listed above which include but not limited to covering cuts, scrapes, or sores, and hand washing is a must.
Above all do not share personal items such as toothbrushes, razor blades, sheets and towels and so on. MRSA is not new and even though recent findings tried to put fault on the “gay” community for the spread of MRSA which has new evidence not to be true, because MRSA has already been around for decades. It is believed that the “general population” is the culprit for spreading this disease (Nasso & Burroway, 2009, p. 70). As with any disease or illness, a diagnosis of MRSA is most often associated with an adaptation to the condition or disease over time.
As with any learning process, the individual must often exhibits mechanisms and strategies to live and overcome the everyday challenges that come with having a health concern and how to deal with it. The patient should not be afraid to ask their physician any questions or concerns they may have. They need to be sure and ask what and why they are doing the procedure, what type of medicine they are prescribing, why is it relevant to their strain, and what reasons the physician has for prescribing that drug will be effect (Rohde & Ross-Gordon, 2012).
When buying household disinfectants make sure you read the label to verify that that they do kill staph and make sure to follow the manufacturer’s directions. If you do not get educated on the disease you will not know what signs and symptoms to look for. Life is too precious and we need to do everything in our power that we are able to live a full and healthy life, so therefore we need to everything we can now to ensure that future.
References Andersson, H. L. & C. Fossum, B. (2011). MRSA-global threat and personal disaster: Patients’ experiences. International Nursing Review. 58(1), 47-53. Haamann, F. & Dulon, M. & Nienhaus, A. (2012). MRSA as an occupational disease: a case series. International Archives of Occupational & Environmental Health. , 84(3), 259-266. Nasso, C. & Burroway, J. (2009), The hysteria over MRSA is unfounded resurgent diseases. In E. Des Chenes (Ed. ), Resurgent Diseases (64-70).
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