Introduction
MRSA is a group of bacteria germ that causes staph infections.
This special strain fights off methicillin and other types of antibiotics commonly used to treat these infections. Although this can be serious, in many cases a MRSA infection gets better with the proper treatment.
To better understand MRSA, let’s take a closer look at normal Staph infections.
Understanding Staph infections
Most of the time, Staphylococcus aureus is harmless. It is all around, living on our skin or even in some people’s noses. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, about 30% of people carry the staph bacteria (called being "colonized"), but never develop an infection.
You get an infection when Staph gets into the body where there is a break in the skin, like from a cut or scrape, or if someone’s immune system is not working well. Staphylococcus can cause a number of minor skin diseases like folliculitis (infection of the hair follicle), boils, impetigo, and cellulitis.
In rare cases, the bacteria can get into the bloodstream and infect other parts of the body. This leads to a number of serious diseases like a lung infection (pneumonia), blood infection (sepsis) and heart valve infection (endocarditis). These bacteria can also release toxins into a body, indirectly causing illnesses like food poisoning and toxic shock syndrome.
Staphylococcus Infections -- Impetigo or Cellulitis
A staph infection like impetigo or cellulitis is caused when the skin is broken in some way and staph enters the area.
The infection usually starts as a small red bump (they can look like an insect bite) or redness in the area near an already open wound (like a cut or a scrape). Most of the time, the infection tends to be mild.
However, this infection then can become red, swollen, painful and warm to the touch. In more serious infections, the bump or wound can fill with pus and may need to be surgically drained.
Someone with this infection may also get fever and have swollen, often tender lymph nodes near where the staph infection is.
Scalded Skin Syndrome
Infants and young children can come down with a condition known as Scalded Skin Syndrome.
This infection starts like a normal staph infection, but then the child’s skin breaks out in red patches with blisters. This happens because the bacteria give off a toxin that damages the skin.
As the blisters burst, the top layer of skin peels away leaving the skin underneath red and raw – like a burn.
There may be superinfection with other germs. Scalded Skin Syndrome may require hospitalization with IV antibiotics for treatment.
