What are MRSAs?
Staph aureus is bacteria that normally lives in the human body: on the nose and in certain moist areas such as the armpits. Virtually everyone carries Staph aureus, but usually it doesn’t affect your health.
But sometimes it may be resistant to antibiotics, like MRSA, which stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Often, infections start in the skin or the upper respiratory tract, but can involve any part of the body.
With the advent of antibiotics, there was tremendous improvement in the treatment of infections. Unfortunately, as antibiotics were developed and widely used, staph became resistant to them. The resistance started with penicillin, and then with a second group of antibiotics, like ampicillin. Then, a third group of antibiotics were found, called methicillin, which are very good at fighting Staph aureus, but now more and more of the bacteria have become resistant to this antibiotic.
So, if you had a wound that became contaminated with one of the resistant Staph aureus, then, it wouldn't be a different infection than a non-resistant infection, but it would be much harder to treat.
How do people get MRSA?
Initially, MRSA infections were first seen in people who were in the hospital for long periods of time. Since these people were typically subjected to many different antibiotic treatments, it wasn't surprising that the infections they had might be methicillin-resistant. And if, for example, a patient is receiving a certain antibiotic and the antibiotics are killing off their normal bacteria, then it's taking away a layer of defense, so they are more susceptible to picking up an antibiotic-resistant organism.
