photo taken from podiatrytoday.com

MRSA also known as Methicillin Resistant Staphyloccocus Aureus, a bacterium responsible for difficult-to-treat infections in humans. MRSA has an ability to survive treatment with bacta-lactam antibiotics, including dicloxacillin, methicillin, nafcillin and oxacillin. It is said that MRSA is burdensome in hospital-associated (nosocomial) infections. Take for example, inside hospitals which have patients with open wounds, invasive devices and weakened immune systems are at greater risk for infection than the general public. Hence, how can MRSA be treated? Here are some std facts which can be helpful in knowing how to treat MRSA.

Luckily, most MRSA can still be treated by certain specific antibiotics like vancomycin (Vancocin), linezolid (Zyvox) and others, often in combination with Vancomycin. Some CA-MRSA strains are susceptible to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim), doxycycline and clindamycin, although reports suggest clindamycin resistance is increasing rapidly. For MRSA carriers, mupirocin antibiotic cream can potentially eliminate MRSA from mucous membrane colonization. Studies suggest mupirocin is much more effective than other topical antibiotics such as bacitracin. Moreover, microbiological techniques done in a lab, which antibiotic(s) can kill the MRSA and use it alone or, more often, in combination with additional antibiotics to treat the infected patient. Since resistance can change quickly, antibiotic treatments may need to change also. A lot of people think that they are cured after a few antibiotic doses and stop taking the medicine. This is a bad decision because the MRSA may still be viable in or on the person and thus is capable of reinfecting the person. The surviving MRSA may be exposed to low antibiotic doses when the medicine is stopped too soon; this low dose may allow MRSA enough time to become resistant to the medicine.

MRSA patients (in fact, all patients) treated with appropriate antibiotics should take the entire course of the antibiotic as directed by their doctor. A note of caution is that, in the last few years, there have been reports of a new strain of MRSA that is resistant to vancomycin (VRSA or vancomycin-resistant S. aureus) and other antibiotics. Aside from that, the treatment of staphylococcal infections depends on multiple factors such as the site of infection, the severity of illness, and the antibiotic sensitivity of the infecting strain. It is said that colonization of the skin or nose usually is not an indication for antibiotic treatment except in special circumstances. Small, localized skin abscesses may improve without use of antibiotics. When antibiotics are required, there are usually only a few from which to choose.

MRSA are resistant to penicillin and all penicillin-like drugs (beta-lactam antibiotics) Most hospital-acquired MRSA are also resistant to numerous other antibiotics. Serious suspected or documented MRSA infection should be treated with vancomycin. As methicillin sensitive S aureus infections respond more rapidly to beta-lactam antibiotics than to vancomycin, empiric therapy for severe infection should include a beta-lactam as well, pending microbiology results. For life threatening infections, gentamicin and/or rifampin should be added. It is comforting to know that MRSA can still be treated and hopefully these std facts that you have read now may have helped you in one way or another to learn more about MRSA.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 6:04 pm and is filed under Sexual Health Care, Sexually Transmitted Diseases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.