MRSA Pictures

MRSA and other staph infections usually begin as tiny red bumps that look like spider bites, pimples, or boils.  Very soon they can turn into abscesses that are deep and painful.  These abscesses may also need surgical draining.  At times the bacteria will stay on the skin, but the bacteria also has the potential to get into the body which can cause major problems, such as infections in the joints, bones, wounds, heart, lungs, and bloodstream.  These serious infections can cause death. 

MRSA is a particular strain of the staph infection that is resistant to the antibiotics that are usually used to treat the infection.  Staph bacteria are generally found in the nose or on the skin of around one out of three people.  If you do have the staph bacteria in your nose or on your skin but you are not sick, you are considered to be colonized, yet you are otherwise healthy and not infected.  In fact, healthy people are able to be colonized without any ill effects to their health.  Yet the problem is that they are able to pass this germ on to others. 

The staph bacteria then is usually harmless in this capacity unless it enters your body through a wound or a cut.  Even then the bacteria will only cause minor skin problems for people who are healthy.  Staph infections do have the ability to cause serious illness.  This can occur in older adults as well as people who have weak immune systems, usually people who are in long term health care facilities or residing in hospitals.  However, lately serious infections have also been found in people who are otherwise healthy residing in the community.  One example is athletes who share personal items or equipment. 

The challenge with MRSA is that it is becoming resistant to antibiotics.  Just like other superbugs, MRSA has been the result of much unnecessary and excessive use of antibiotics.  For many years, antibiotics have been prescribed for the flu, colds, as well as viral infections that do not respond to the antibiotics as well as relatively simple bacterial infections in which antibiotics are not necessary.  The use of these antibiotics has lead to the bacteria becoming more resistant.  Yet prescription drugs are not the only thing to be blamed for this problem.  In the United States of America, there are antibiotics in livestock.  Then the antibiotics get into the water systems when the runoff from the feedlots of the livestock ends up contaminating the groundwater and the streams.  There is also germ mutation.  Even when the antibiotics are used in an appropriate manner, they do contribute to the increase of drug-resistant bacteria since they do not destroy all the germs targeted.  Bacteria that is able to survive with one antibiotic have the potential to survive others.  Bacteria mutates very quickly, and so the germs can become resistant to nearly everything.  This is why there are only a few drugs that are now considered effective against most staph infections.

There are two different kinds of MRSA, and they are community-associated MRSA and health care associated MRSA.  Both have different risk factors.  Risk factors for getting community-associated MRSA include young age, participating in contact sports, sharing towels and athletic equipment, living in areas that are unsanitary or crowded, and being around health care workers.  Additionally it has been found that community-associated MRSA is going through groups of gay men.  This has been noted in the cities of Boston and San Francisco.  There are also risk factors that put you at a higher risk of getting health care associated MRSA.  These risk factors include invasive devices, such as feeding tubes or catheters, recent use of antibiotics, living in a long term health care facility, and having had a recent hospitalization or currently residing in a hospital. 

Please make sure that if you suspect that you have MRSA that you look into whether or not you have the bacteria present.  You do not want it to develop further into a life threatening condition, and you also do not want to spread it to others.  Therefore, you should look for signs of a wound infection.  Signs include a fever, pus, warmth, tenderness, and redness to the wound.