Today, more than 90% of Staphyloccocus aureus strains are resistant to the antibiotic that once conquered this common microbe. (For more on antibiotic-resistant bacteria, see Chapter 14.) Today, more than 90% of Staphylococcus aureus strains are resistant to the antibiotic that once conquered this common microbe. Because of the alarming growth in antibioticresistant superbugs, drug companies and researchers are trying to develop new antibiotics. One strategy they employ is to tweak the chemical structure of existing antibiotics just enough that a bacterium cannot disable it.…
Etiology- MRSA is caused by Staphylococcus aureus germs on the skin that start an infection in a surgical wound or open wound. Unnecessary use of antibiotics have, over time, increased the resistance of the germs to the antibiotics used to treat them.…
The genus Staphylococcus includes more than 20 species as described in Bergey 's Manual (2001). Only two are significant to humans, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis. S. aureus colonizes mainly the nasal passages, but it may be found regularly in the oral cavity, gastrointestinal tract and the skin. Staphylococcus epidermidis is an inhabitant of the skin. Of these two Staphylococcus aureus is serious pathogen. Staphylococcus epidermidis is of the normal flora and is not considered to be a serious pathogen (textbookofbacteriology.net). Staphylococcus epidemidis becomes pathogenic when the skin is broken or through contamination from medical procedure. Staphylococcus aureus are only able to invade via broken skin or mucous membranes.…
To understand Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, we must first understand Staphylococcus aureus. Staphylococcus aureus is a spherical, or coccus, bacteria (MRSA). The bacteria usually appears is chains, bunches, or grape like clusters, (Gregory, 229). It is a gram-positive aerobic organism that causes skin infections and sometimes pneumonia, endocarditis and osteomyelitis (Beers, 1442). This infection commonly leads to abscess formations (Beers, 1442). Staphylococcus aureus is a coagulase positive bacterium, and is among those that are dangerous human pathogen because it has the ability to both be extremely virulent and its ability to develop antibiotic resistance, (Beers, 1442).…
Introduction: Carriage of S.aureus is important in hospital patients, preoperative patients, hospital staff, food handlers etc. because it carriage of S.aureus appears to play a key role in the epidemiology and pathogenesis of infection. S.aureus can cause localized and invasive infections in humans. S.aureus is a major cause of food poisoning due to their ability to produce enterotoxins which if ingested in sufficient amounts results in sickness. Food handlers carrying enterotoxin-producing S. aureus in their noses or hands can contaminate food leading to food poisoning. Hospital personnel may be nasal carriers of S.aureus in a higher percentage of cases than in the general population. In a hospital study, S.aureus nasal carriage rates were found 28% (41/144) in normal population, and 31.5% (12/38) in hospital laboratory personnel.…
Staphylococcus is a genus of the Gram-positive bacteria which appears as grape-like clusters structure when observed under the microscope. Staphylococcus genus can be grouped into not less than 40 species, where nine of them consist of 2 subspecies and one gas three subspecies. Staphylococcus was first found in the year if 1880 by surgeon A.Ogston during a surgical abscess in a knee joint. Until this day, average estimation of 20% of the human population are carriers of Staphylococcus aureus. Staphylococcus aureus, one of the members of the Firmicutes, is commonly found in the respiratory tract or on the skin, causing skin irritation and infection and also sinusitis and respiratory infection (Ogston A 1984).…
Thesis Statement: MRSA is an infection caused by a strain of Staphylococcus that has become resistant to antibiotics commonly used to treat staph infections.…
According to the National Center for disease control and prevention, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus is a type of staph infection that is resistant to the usual antibiotics that are effective in treating other types of staph ("CDC - Definition of MRSA | MRSA Infections", 2010). Sometimes antibiotic resistant infections are called super bugs. This essay attempts to discover how it happens, how it can be prevented and possible treatments available.…
By definition methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterial infection that is highly resistant to antibiotics. Staphylococcus aureus is a strain of bacteria that is normally found on the skin or in the nasal passage way of about one third of the population. MRSA is the staphylococcus aureus bacteria that do not respond to antibiotics.…
In reviewing the article “What is your facility doing to combat MRSA?” patients were screen for MRSA prior to surgery, with the intervention of increased hand washing. This is very cost effect for the patient as well as facilities. Loyola University Medical Center in Illinois was in support of the guidelines of the Association for Professional in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) and the CDC for preventing the mushroom effect of MRSA. This hospital piloted a quantitative program for pre-admission testing of all surgical patients and encourages MRSA screening for all patients. With the increase in MRSA infections, the hospital increases the screening to all pre-admission patients. The Association of per Operative Registered Nurse (AORN) encourages all facilities to manage the spread of MRSA, by following guidelines set by the APIC and the CDC. This includes enforcing contact-isolation precautions; hand hygiene policy, and performing screening for MRSA on all surgical…
The topic of this paper is Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, better known as MRSA. This is a new disease that has a high resistance to antibiotics. Because of the resistance to most antibiotics, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus is considered to be a very serious disease.…
The capacity for quick change among disease-causing microbes is what makes them so dangerous to large numbers of people and so difficult and expensive to treat. They leap from wildlife or domestic animals into humans, adapting to new circumstances as they go. Their inherent variability allows them to find new ways of evading and defeating human immune systems. By natural selection they acquire resistance to drugs that should kill them. They evolve. There's no better or more immediate evidence supporting the Darwinian theory than this process of forced transformation among our inimical germs. Take the common bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, which lurks in hospitals and causes serious infections, especially among surgery patients. Penicillin, becoming available in 1943, proved almost miraculously effective in fighting staphylococcus infections. Its deployment marked a new phase in the old war between humans and disease microbes, a phase in which humans invent new killer drugs and microbes find new ways to be unkillable. The supreme potency of penicillin didn't last long. The first resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus were reported in 1947. A newer staph-killing drug, methicillin, came into use during the 1960s, but methicillin-resistant strains appeared soon, and by the 1980s those strains were widespread. Vancomycin became the next great weapon against staph, and the first vancomycin-resistant strain emerged in 2002. These antibioticresistant strains represent an evolutionary series, not much different in principle from the fossil series tracing horse evolution from Hyracotherium to Equus. They make evolution a very practical problem by adding expense, as well as misery and danger, to the challenge of coping with staph. The…
MRSA (Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) is one example of the staphylococcus family common bacteria (BBC Health–MRSA). There are many strains of MRSA and many people carry it in their throat, nose and skin folds. MRSA is an infectious agent and can live on the body for example in eczema, varicose and decubitus ulcers, this acts like a reservoir providing ideal conditions for the MRSA to lie in skin folds and in wounds. For the bacteria to exit the portal it can simple be spread from skin to skin contact. To break the chain of infection the patient should wash their hands. However, not practising good hygiene gives the bacteria a means of transmission. The bacteria will wait for a portal of entry; this could be another patient touching contaminated skin. There have been a number of campaigns to eradicate the transmission of MRSA, and one of them is from the World Health Organisation “Save lives clean your hands”. This campaign is for Health Care workers to assess within their own departments how often hand hygiene is being carried out by their colleagues (WHO…
The most common bacteria that can acquire or develop resistance is Pseudomonas aeruginosa (soo-daMOE-nus A-ridge-a-NO-sa). Pseudomonas can develop resistance to several antibiotics. Another bacteria is Staphylococcus aureus (STAFF-ee-loeKOK-us OR-i-us). When resistance develops, it is commonly called MRSA for methacillin (METH-a-SILL-in) resistant or ORSA for oxacillin (OX-aSILL-in) resistant Staphylococcus…
• Use of vancomycin if MRSA colonization is documented. • MRSA infections result in increased cost, hospital stay and mortality. • •…