Medical Keywords - Everything you need to know about health.

5 Things You Must Know About MRSA

1. What is or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus? Methicillin is any antibiotic that is penicillin based, such as methicillin, dicloxacillin, nafcillin, oxacillin and cephalosporins. Penicillin is used to treat gram-positive bacteria. Staphylococcus aureus is a gram-positive cocci bacterium that if seen under a microscope looks like tiny grape clusters. Most people carry S. aureus on their skin or in their nasal cavity, with the highest concentration of carriers being health care professionals. The problem with is that it has become resistant to the usual antibiotic treatments. This makes an infection with extremely difficult to treat and tremendously dangerous.

2. What are the common symptoms of ? The mechanism of entrance to cause an infection is usually through tissue invasion. This happens when you have a break in your skin, such as a cut from shaving. The trademark symptom of the staph infection is an abscess. It is pustule-like and inflamed with a hard-core center of pus containing the organisms and white blood cells. From this focal point of infection, it can spread through your blood and infect other body systems. This can cause many different illness symptoms depending on where it spread. It can cause pneumonia, if it spread to your lungs, bone and joint infection or infect your heart valves.

3. The risk factors for being infected with . People who have weakened immune system, such as those who are living with HIV or AIDS, cancer patients, people living with auto-immune disorders, such as lupus and transplant recipients. Hospital patients or residents of nursing homes/long term-care facilities are at risk because many infections start in hospitals and healthcare facilities. In addition, the fact that many healthcare workers are carriers if they are not careful with hand washing it can be easily spread. Prison inmates are at a great risk of contracting and spreading due to, the confined space, poor health and reduced hygiene practices.

4. Prevention of is a multi-disciplinary effort. Screening patients who enter the hospital, with cultures of the nares can help prevent carriers from infecting non carriers or spreading to immune-compromised patients. Sanitizing surfaces with alcohol-based cleaning products can greatly reduce the spread of . Sanitation of all surfaces in the hospital is necessary to eliminate because it can live on surfaces and fabrics. Hand washing is one of the most important things we can all do to stop the spread of many infections, including . Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are great at stopping infections and do not require soap and water, so they are convenient. The use of a surgical respirator, a mask, which blocks 95% of small particles, is helping to stop the spread of . Isolation is usually implemented in positive patients. It is also important to reduce the use of antibiotics and only use them when absolutely necessary in addition to finish all the antibiotics that are prescribed to you by your physician.

5. Treatment for usually involves a dual therapy of two different types of antibiotics. They might use a cephalosporin and clindamycin or a quinolone. Some specialists advise the use of clindamycin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, rifampin, tetracyclines such as doxycycline, or a quinolone. Lastly, because of trepidations about stimulation of resistance, some advise using vancomycin and teicoplanin in combination, rather than using a single drug. is a very dangerous infection and can be life threatening. Care should be taken to help avoid exposure and spreading of it.