Well first off, unless you're living under a rock, let's get to the bottom of what MRSA is. MRSA stands for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It's a type of bacterial cocci (microorganisms) found on the skin and noses of healthy people. For the most part it's harmless. However, over time various populations of this bacteria have become resistant to a number of antibiotics. In the 1940's penicillin was introduced and overused in the health care field. This overuse is thought to be the cause of MRSA. MRSA is a staphylococcus aureus except that it has mutated. This mutation gives resistance to some of the drugs used to treat staph. infections. MRSA strands are resistant to methicillin, flucloxacillin, erythromicin, penicillin and ciprofloxacin.

Staph infections, including MRSA, are often seen more frequently among persons in hospitals and healthcare facilities who have weakened immune systems. This strain is referred to as hospital-associated (HA)-MRSA. Infections that occur in otherwise healthy people who have not been recently (within the past year) hospitalized or had a medical procedure (such as dialysis, surgery, catheters) are known as community-associated (CA)-MRSA infections.

Roughly 75 percent of CA-MRSA infections are localized to skin and soft tissue and usually can be treated effectively. However CA-MRSA strains display enhanced lethalness. Unless detected in advance, can spread quickly and cause illnesses much more unsparig than traditional HA-MRSA infections, which can affect vital organs and lead to prevelant infection. It is not known why some healthy people develop CA-MRSA skin infections that are treatable whereas others infected with the same strain develop severe infections or die.

MRSA most often appears as a skin infection, like a boil or abscess. It also might infect a surgical wound. In either case, the area would look swollen, red, painful or pus filled.

If staph infects the lungs and causes pneumonia, you might have shortness of breath, fever or chills. MRSA can cause many other symptoms since it can infect the urinary tract or the bloodstream. Very rarely does it result in ?flesh-eating? bacterial infections. These are severe skin infections that spread very quickly. While alarming it's very unusual, there have only been a handful of reported cases.

Both hospital and community associated strains of MRSA still react to certain medications. In hospitals and care facilities, doctors generally depend on the antibiotic vancomycin to treat resistant germs. CA-MRSA may be treated with vancomycin or other antibiotics that have proved effective against particular strains. Although vancomycin saves lives, it may grow resistant as well; some hospitals are already seeing outbreaks of vancomycin-resistant MRSA. To help reduce that threat, doctors may drain an abscess caused by MRSA rather than treat the infection with drugs.

Infections caused by Staph or MRSA are generally mild, confined to the surface of the skin, and can be remedied successfully with proper hygiene and antibiotics. In rare cases, if left untreated or not recognized early, MRSA infections can be difficult to treat and can progress to life-threatening blood or bone infections because there are fewer effective antibiotics available for treatment. So you can get better and in most cases, MRSA is easily treated. But since MRSA infection can be serious or ? rarely ? fatal, don't ignore signs of infection and promptly see you health care provider.