MRSA Symptoms

An Overview of MRSA

Like many people you may have heard of methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus or MRSA in media reports of the past couple of years.  With that noted, you may not really understand the true nature of MRSA.  Through this article you are provided an informational overview of MRSA.

MRSA actually has become a major medical and health care concern over the course of the past few years.  Indeed, an increasing number of individuals are finding themselves suffering from a MRSA infection. 

From a technical standpoint, MRSA is form of the staphylococcus aureus bacterium.  However, unlike the “basic” staphylococcus aureua bacterium, MRSA is a significantly antibiotic resistent form of that bacterium.  The alarming reality is that MRSA fails to respond to a number of different antibiotics.  For example, MRSA fails to respond to commonly used antibiotics including:

l      methicillin

l      dicloxacillin

l      nafcillin

l      oxacillin

In most cases there are effective treatments for MRSA beyond these commonly utilized antibiotics.  However, these infections are hard to combat and there are instances in which patients suffering from MRSA have died as a result of their infections.

While it is possible for a person to become infected with the MRSA bacterium anywhere, the reality is that at this point in time it has become a particularly troublesome problem in hospitals and medical centers.  An increasing number of patients are ending up facing MRSA infections arising out of their hospitalizations.  Patients that particularly are susceptible to hospital associated MRSA infections include:

l      patients dealing with open wounds or sores

l      patients who are utilizing invasive medical devices

l      patients with weakened immune systems

In examining the transmission of MRSA in hospital settings studies have suggested hospital staff members many times are the agents of this transmission.  Obviously, hospital staff members end up having to deal with a significant number of patients in what really amounts to a compressed amount of time.  If these staff members fail to follow sanitary protocols and procedures to the letter (which can happen in the day to day rush of dealing with patient needs) MRSA can fairly easily be spread from one patient to another.

Finally, when it comes to MRSA infections in hospitals, visitors to a person who is afflicted with this type of infection are called upon to wear gowns, masks and gloves during their visitations.  These precautions not only protect the visitors but it prevents further spreading of MRSA throughout the hospital.  For example, in the absence of the precautions, MRSA can easily spread to other public areas of a hospital or medical center, including elevators, cafeterias and restrooms.

MRSA is a resistant variation of the common bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. It has evolved an ability to survive treatment with beta-lactamase resistant beta-lactam antibiotics, including methicillin, dicloxacillin, nafcillin, and oxacillin. MRSA is especially troublesome in hospital-associated (nosocomial) infections. In hospitals, patients with open wounds, invasive devices, and weakened immune systems are at greater risk for infection than the general public. Hospital staff who do not follow proper sanitary procedures may transfer bacteria from patient to patient. Visitors to patients with MRSA infections or MRSA colonization are advised to follow hospital isolation protocol by using the provided gloves, gowns, and masks if indicated. Visitors who do not follow such protocols are capable of spreading the bacteria to cafeterias, bathrooms, and elevators.

MRSA is an infection that shows itself on the skin of those who have the disease. The infection itself, once in your bloodstream, does not appear immediately, but undergoes an undetermined incubation period before the symptoms are even noticed. As soon as any of the signs of MRSA become apparent, it is then possible for the infection to quickly and easily spread to other areas of your body randomly. The following are some of the signs and symptoms to look for if you think you may have been exposed to, or are worried about, contracting MRSA.

The first signs that you have possibly contracted MRSA are small red bumps that appear on the surface of your skin as a result of cellulites. Cellulites occurs directly under your skin and the infection spreads until the fat, tissues and skin all begin growing red in color, which is what will be visible to you. Boils, abscesses and impetigo are generally the symptoms that will follow the initial rash, and this is when most patients and doctors realise that there is an infection involved.

Boils appear around hair follicles where MRSA has been contracted and they begin to fill with pus becoming sore and painful. An abscess will be similar to a boil, only it will not be located around a hair follicle and just appear as a collection of pus on your skin. Impetus is the most common of all the symptoms and will contain many blisters that are filled with pus in a general area that has been infected.

The final two signs of MRSA are also associated with tenderness and pain in a certain parts of the body. Carbuncles are perhaps the most noticeable and worrisome of all the symptoms, leaving you with a large infected area that contains several abscesses and skin openings. Finally, a sty is location specific much like boils, but a sty is located in the glands of an eyelid. All of these symptoms are painful and require immediate attention from a doctor.

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) has the ability to spread to the organs of the body and cause complications therein, as well as infections on the skin. One of the complications that can result from MRSA is a lung infection, or pneumonia. Because the patients that contract MRSA are already weakened from other illness or disease, contracting lung disease is very serious and needs to be treated immediately.

Lung infections from MRSA are more often than not caused by treatment in a hospital or other health facility. Because of the body’s natural defences, MRSA is regularly in contact with us but does not usually infect us. When patients are treated in a hospital setting though, they are put at a greater risk of infection from MRSA by other patients, health care providers and the tools that are used in the care of the patients. Many times patients contract lung infection from MRSA when a ventilator is used to help them breath during treatment or surgery. The addition of these ventilator tubes to the body increases the risk of MRSA forming and spreading to the lungs and causing severe pneumonia.

Regardless of the cause of the lung infection by the MRSA bacteria, the disease is very hard to fight and control. Patients who are already weakened from other treatments have a very hard time fighting off any additional infections, especially ones of this magnitude. Additionally, because of its resistance to medications, there is very little that can be done to treat the infection and the best defence for most patients are their immune system. Those that come into contact with patients who have contracted lung infections from MRSA must be very careful to scrub up afterwards as there is an increased risk of contamination.

MRSA is an especially complicated infection because of the way it is transmitted and the fact that it does not respond to medication. One of the most complicated aspects of predicting and diagnosing MRSA in patients is the unpredictable incubation time that is accompanied with the disease. This incubation period is known as the time that it takes for the infection to be contracted and then actually appear in the patient so that doctors can recognise and diagnose it.

In most cases, once MRSA is able to enter your bloodstream there is a one to ten day incubation period. The reason for this varied and unpredictable amount of time is unknown and very much unlike other infections which require a determined amount of time to spread and cause symptoms. The incubation period is believed to depend on the way the patient contracted the disease, but this is not certain. As there are two ways for a person to contract the disease, (the disease is already present on your body and enters through openings you may have on your skin or you touch something with MRSA on it and then it finds a way into your bloodstream), that both require it to enter your bloodstream and leave us with no clues as to how exactly the patient contracted MRSA, this is a very hard disease to determine.

Because the incubation period of MRSA relies on so many factors that all work together or against each other, MRSA is even that much harder to work with. This indefinite period is largely responsible for the rapid spread of MRSA in close quarters such as hospitals, schools and dormitories, because by the time anyone is showing the symptoms, the disease has already had the opportunity to spread. The best way to avoid any possibility of contracting the infection is through frequent and consistent washing, since that is the way in which the disease will spread.

Contracting cellulitis from MRSA is very common and the degree of seriousness depends on the patient and their overall health. Cellulitis is an infection of the skin that forms in the fat and underlying tissue, but appears as a rash on the skin of the patient. The area that is infected is generally very tender and sore to the touch, as well as being very red in appearance with the formation of small bumps. The chances of catching MRSA cellulitis is very high for those who are in long term health care situations where they will be constantly exposed to other patients who could be possible carriers and the medical workers who treat them.

The appearance of cellulitis in patients is the body’s natural response to the infection that has entered it. The immune system responds to bacteria and other pathogens that enter the bloodstream, and MSRA is a type of bacteria that does in actual fact head straight into the bloodstream from where it spreads to the entire body. The redness and inflammation that is noticeable on the skin, is cellulitis and is a direct result of the immune system attacking the infection.

Cellulitis can appear anywhere on the body and is usually present where the bacteria first was able to enter the body, either by way of a cut, scratch or something similar. If there is any doubt that the rash on the skin is cellulitis, it can be better determined if there is a warmness of the skin that is red. More advanced cases of cellulitis will begin to develop abscesses, blistering and ulcers in the infected area and it is very important to have this seen to and treated by a doctor. Upon healing, the skin infected and showing signs of cellulitis will begin to regenerate and the blistered areas will flake off like old skin.