(We are aware that discussions of infectious diseases
can be very uncomfortable! Please be aware that:
We have a complete effective treatment plan for MRSA!
It is the only complete plan that effectively covers all aspects of MRSA treatment. There is much more information on why this is so effective in other sections here. However, first let us take a look at MRSA symptoms from no less an authority than the Mayo Clinic.
Definition
MRSA infection is caused by staphylococcus aureus bacteria, which is often called "staph." MRSA stands for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. It is a strain of staph that's resistant to the broad-spectrum antibiotics commonly used to treat bacteria. MRSA can be fatal.
Most MRSA infections occur in hospitals or other health care settings, such as nursing homes and dialysis centers. It is known as health care-associated MRSA, or HA-MRSA. Older adults and people with weakened immune systems are at most risk of HA-MRSA. More recently, another type of MRSA has occurred among otherwise healthy people in the wider community. This form, community-associated MRSA, or CA-MRSA, is responsible for serious skin and soft tissue infections and for a serious form of pneumonia.
MRSA Symptoms
Staph skin infections, including MRSA, generally start as small red bumps that resemble pimples, boils or spider bites. These can quickly turn into deep, painful abscesses that require surgical draining. Sometimes the bacteria remain confined to the skin. But they can also penetrate into the body, causing potentially life-threatening infections in bones, joints, surgical wounds, the bloodstream, heart valves and lungs.
Causes of staph infections
MRSA is a strain of staph that's resistant to the broad-spectrum antibiotics commonly used to treat it. Staph bacteria are normally found on the skin or in the nose of about one-third of the population. If you have staph on your skin or in your nose but aren't sick, you are said to be "colonized" but not infected. Healthy people can be colonized and have no ill effects. However, they can pass the germ to others.
Staph bacteria are generally harmless unless they enter the body through a cut or other wound. Even then, they often cause only minor skin problems in healthy people. However, staph infections can cause serious illness. This most often happens in older adults and people who have weakened immune systems, usually in hospitals and long term care facilities. But in the past several years, serious infections have been occurring in otherwise healthy people in the community, for example athletes who share equipment or personal items.
Antibiotic resistance
Although the survival tactics of bacteria contribute to antibiotic resistance, humans bear most of the responsibility for the problem. Leading causes of antibiotic resistance include:
Unnecessary antibiotic use. Like other superbugs, MRSA is the result of decades of excessive and unnecessary antibiotic use. For years, antibiotics have been prescribed for colds, flu and other viral infections that don't respond to these drugs, as well as for simple bacterial infections that normally clear on their own.
Antibiotics in food and water. Prescription drugs aren't the only source of antibiotics. In the United States, antibiotics can be found in livestock. These antibiotics find their way into municipal water systems when the runoff from feedlots contaminates streams and groundwater.
Germ mutation. Even when antibiotics are used appropriately, they contribute to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria because they don't destroy every germ they target.
Bacteria live on an evolutionary fast track, so germs that survive treatment with one antibiotic soon learn to resist others. And because bacteria mutate much more quickly than new drugs can be produced, some germs end up resistant to just about everything. That's why only a handful of drugs are now effective against most forms of staph.
Risk factors
Because hospital and community strains of MRSA generally occur in different settings, the risk factors and MRSA symptoms for the two strains can differ.
1. Risk factors for COMMUNITY - associated MRSA (CA-MRSA)
Children - young ages. CA-MRSA can be particularly dangerous in children. Often entering the body through a cut or scrape, MRSA can quickly cause a widespread infection. Children may be susceptible because their immune systems aren't fully developed or they don't yet have antibodies to common germs. Children and young adults are also much more likely to develop dangerous forms of pneumonia, which can result from CA-MRSA, than older people are.
Contact sport participation. CA-MRSA has affected sports teams. The bacteria spread easily through cuts and abrasions and skin-to-skin contact.
Sharing towels or athletic equipment. CA-MRSA has spread among athletes sharing razors, towels, uniforms or equipment.
Having a weakened immune system. People with weakened immune systems, such as those living with HIV/AIDS, are more likely to have severe CA-MRSA infections.
Living in crowded or unsanitary conditions. Outbreaks of CA-MRSA have occurred in military training camps and in American and European prisons.
Association with health care workers. People who are in close contact with health care workers are at increased risk of serious staph infections.
Gay men. In addition to these risk factors, CA-MRSA is also spreading through certain groups of gay men. A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found a new strain of MRSA spreading rapidly among gay men in Boston and San Francisco. For example, gay men in San Francisco were 13 times more likely to be infected than others in the city.
2. Risk factors for HEALTH CARE - associated MRSA (HA-MRSA)
A current or recent hospitalization. MRSA remains a concern in hospitals, where it can attack those most vulnerable - older adults and people with weakened immune systems, burns, surgical wounds or serious underlying health problems. This is particularly true if you have a hospital stay of more than 14 days. A 2007 report from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology estimated that 46 out of every 1,000 people hospitalized are infected or colonized with MRSA.
Living in a long term care facility. MRSA is also prevalent in these facilities. Carriers of MRSA have the ability to spread it, even if they're not sick themselves.
Invasive devices. People who are on dialysis, are catheterized, or have feeding tubes or other invasive devices are at higher risk.
Recent antibiotic use. Treatment with fluoroquinolones (ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin or levofloxacin) or cephalosporin antibiotics can increase the risk of HA-MRSA.
In light of the seriousness of MRSA, we have endeavored to produce the first complete natural treatment system for MRSA. It involves:
- An external Ultimate Staph Treatment,
- An internal direct MRSA treatment and immune system strengthener, and
- Household environment antibacterial products.
If you, or some you love, has MRSA symptoms, we invite you take a closer look at our The 5-Step MRSA Treatment Plan.
