MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria are common but can be tougher to treat than most strains of Staphylococcus aureus due to it's immunity to some commonly used antibiotics. MRSA, also known as the "Super Bug" can cause mild skin infections in different parts of the body, such as pimples or boils. However, these staph infections may lead to serious skin infections of surgical wounds, the bloodstream, and organs --- all of which could be life-threatening.



The widespread staph infections have caused alarm to many public health experts that studies are being presented to the American Society for Microbiology Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

MRSA bacteria can be fatal and costly. It can cause even more damage. According to Dror Marchaim, MD, of Israel's Tel-Aviv Medical Center, they analyzed 21 studies involving 1,131 MRSA patients and 1,587 patients with drug-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus. He found out that MRSA patients turned out worse, across the board. These patients were 36 percent more likely to die, stayed in the hospital seven days longer, and their hospital bill was $7,250 to $11,500 higher, said Marchaim.

If MRSA replaces drug-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus, Marchaim predicted that it will add annually 2,700 cases of death, 210,000 days of hospitalization, and $310 million to hospital expenditures. "Strategies to better control and treat MRSA are required," noted Marchaim.

Unfortunately, first-line treatment for MRSA often fails to kill the bacteria. In fact, first-line MRSA treatment failed in a quarter of the patients studied by Julia Dombrowski, MD.

While working at the University of California, San Francisco, Dombrowski studied 215 cases of serious staph infections. Most of the patients in her study also faced other major challenges, including diabetes (19%), HIV (14%), homelessness (34%), injection drug use (46%), and alcohol abuse (26%).

Dombrowski reported that overall, 53 patients (25%) were not cured with the first round of antibiotic therapy, even when it was given for the recommended length of time. Those who are most likely to have failed treatments are patients with MRSA bone infections.

According to Dombrowski, the high rate of treatment failure seen in this study suggests that we should look at other therapies, especially for MRSA bone infections, to see if they are more effective. Among the several suggested strategies were combination drug therapy, longer treatment period, and use of different antibiotics. She also recommended that those approches be tested during the studies.

In almost 10 percent of MRSA patients, staph infections may return. According to the CDC's Zachary Rubin, MD, and colleagues, they reviewed the CDC data on 7,629 MRSA patients from 2004-2006. All had evidence of MRSA blood infection. And 30 days after the bacteria was first spotted, nearly 10 percent of them had MRSA show up in their blood again.

MRSA recurrence and staph infections were more common among people who recently or frequently got health care conditions. Also included in the high risk group were those who had diabetes or HIV/AIDS, those who were black, or those who abused injected drugs.