1. Lacie Shea, Gracyn Fuller
MRSA
Lacie Shea, Gracyn Fuller

2. What is MRSA?
MRSA is a strain of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. This is a bacterium which causes infections in different parts of the body. It is tougher to treat than other strains of Staphylococcus aureus or 'staph' because it is resistant to some commonly used antibiotics.

3. What does it look like?
Starts as red little, swollen and painful red bumps and can turn into deep open sores.

4. Symptoms Warm to the touch Full of pus or other drainage
Accompanied by a fever

5. Cause
Staph bacteria are normally found on the skin or in the nose of about one-third of the population. The bacteria are generally harmless unless they enter the body through a cut or other wound, and even then they usually cause only minor skin problems in healthy people. Is spread by skin to skin contact.

6. Cure
While penicillin and amoxicillin won't treat MRSA, other antibiotics can. Examples include trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole Bactrim and clindamycin Cleocin. A doctor may prescribe one of these antibiotics, plus rifampin, another antibiotic type, depending on the severity of the infection.

7. Worst case scenario
MRSA skin infections may develop pus or weep other fluids. If left untreated, a MRSA skin infection can go progressively deeper into the body, infecting blood and organs.

8. Facts Hospital patients are more at risk of infection
MRSA isn’t found in the natural environment
Initial symptoms can be mistaken for a spider bite
Two in 100 people carry MRSA.

9. Sources