MRSA: A Serious Bacterial Infection of the Skin & Lungs

Methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterium that leads to infections in various body parts. The staph infection is difficult to treat because it is resistant to many antibiotics. According to the report by CDC, nearly5% of patients in US hospitals carry MRSA in either their skin or nose ("General Information | MRSA | CDC"). The CDC fact sheet goes ahead to show that, in most cases, MRSA can lead to pneumonia (lung infection) among other infections. If the condition is not treated at the right time, it can become chronic and lead to sepsis, the body's extreme response to an infection. In the areas like the nursing home and hospitals, MRSA can lead to problematic health conditions like bloodstream infections, pneumonia, or surgical site infections.

Transmission of the Disease

MRSA is transmitted through skin contact. This means that when one might get infected by the infection by getting into skin contact with an infected person, or by touching an object that have the bacteria causing the infection without covering the skin. Nearly 2% of the population carry the MRSA, though not all of them are infected. Xxx has established that MRSA infection is common among people who have weak immune system and are hospitalized or nursed at home and any other health care facility. They appear can be visible around the surgical wound or invasive devices, such as implanted or catheters feeding tubes. ("Understanding MRSA Infection" Webmd). Haddadin, Fappiano, Lipsett (n.d) reflected on the research conducted by the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance which gives statistics in the last 20 years, according to the data, within all hospitals that participated on the research, there was an increase from 2% to 29% in the part of methicillin resistance among S aureus, while an increase to 38% among those hospitalized with more than 500 beds.

Epidemic

There are nearly 2 million fresh infections among patients in US hospitals. Approximately 60% infections are antibiotic resistant bacteria. The surplus cost associated to antibiotic resistance has an annual estimate varying from $100 million to $30 billion In US hospitals. In US, an estimated 40% of S aureus infections are S aureus infections. The research shows that MRSA strain epidemic in most of European and American hospitals accounts to for 57% of all ICU acquired S aureus infection. The key infected groups of MRSA included infected and colonised inpatients (Haddadin, n.p).

History (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445179/)

MRSA was first discovered in the 1960s as a nosocomial pathogen. Later on in 1980s, the infections based on community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) started to develop. Such infections were associated with MRSA spread from hospitals into the community. Although, from the mid-1990s marked the emergence of a highly contagious community-acquired bacterium without the association of a health care. A CA-MRSA infection has become a public health threat since there is an increase of its prevalence. The world is experiencing an intensified widespread of the disease. Many of the emergency rooms in the US recognize this infection as the primary pathogen in skin-related infections. There has been increase of clinical challenges since the emergence of CA-MRSA. The prevalence of CA-MRSA in different communities alongside he organism's exclusive pattern of clinical presentation, virulence, and antibiotic resistance have some significant treatment influences. The invasive MRSA infections that atsteted in the hpspitals have shown some decline by 8% in the years between 2011 and 2013

Most of the skin infections such as MRSA appear as a bump on the infected area of the skin. Th infection follows the follow sequence.:"Red > Swollen or painful > Warm to the touch > Full of pus or other damage." The infected skin becomes full of pus . (https://www.cdc.gov/mrsa/pdf/MRSA_Broch_Parent.pdf)

SOmeof the S. aureus skin infections, are close related to MRSA, they look as bump in the affected areas of the skin, the visible symptoms include: Swollen, red, warm to the touch, painful, full of pus or other drainage as well as pus.

Works Cited

"General Information | MRSA | CDC". Cdc.Gov, 2019, https://www.cdc.gov/mrsa/community/index.html. Accessed 11 Apr 2019.

"Understanding MRSA Infection". Webmd, 2019, https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/understanding-mrsa#1. Accessed 11 Apr 2019.

Haddadin A S, Fappiano S A, Lipsett P A. "BMJ Journal". Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) In The Intensive Care Unit, 2019, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278965923_Prevalence_and_antimicrobial_susceptibility_pattern_of_Clindamycin_in_MRSA_isolates_of_patients_in_a_tertiary_care_hospital. Accessed 11 Apr 2019.

Haddadin, A S. "Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) In The Intensive Care Unit". Postgraduate Medical Journal, vol 78, no. 921, 2002, pp. 385-392. BMJ, doi:10.1136/pmj.78.921.385. Accessed 11 Apr 2019.

Transient hand carriage of the organism on the hands of health care workers accounts for the major mechanism for patient-to-patient transmission.