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Essay On MRSA

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Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a common skin infection contracted in the community and healthcare systems. Methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was originally resistant to the antibiotic methicillin which is a form of penicillin. MRSA is now resistant to many other antibiotics such as; penicillin, vancomycin, and erythromycin (Sakoulas. G., Moellering. R.C.Jr., 2008). What this means is that the antibiotics have lost their ability to control or kill the bacteria. MRSA was first seen in healthcare in the 1940’s (Herwaldt. L. A., 1999). Since it is commonly contracted and can live in many environments, we now see MRSA in the community. MRSA can only be contracted by physical touch with an infected individual. If …show more content…

E, 2010). The difference between staphylococcus aureus and methicillin- resistant staphylococcus aureus is, that S. aureus is a common skin infection carried on the nose or skin and often treated with antibiotics. MRSA is a type of skin infection that is resistant to antibiotics, making it more difficult to treat (Gould. I.M., 2007).
MRSA is known as the most common staph infection among the community and hospital settings. Clinical Infectious Diseases (CID) states until the late 1960’s resistance to methicillin was uncommon and human infections declined (Keith. S. K., Anderson. D. J., Choi. Y., Link. K., Sexton. P. D. T., 2008). For a decade the infection only appeared in urban hospitals. However, MRSA started to become known again in the 1970’s and it turned into an on-going journey. MRSA started to become an epidemic in the 1980’s, spreading to Europe, Australia, and the Asian- Pacific region (Klevens. R.M., Edwards. J.R., Tenover. F. C., McDonald. L.C., Horan. L., Gaynes. R., 2006). With this incline many teaching hospitals saw an rise of 14% in Australia and 8%- 22% in the United States (Klevens. R.M., Edwards. J.R., Tenover. F. C., McDonald. L.C., Horan. L., Gaynes. R., 2006). At this time, there was a clone to the virus known as EMRSA, that came from Australia. This clone was making its way to the United Kingdom and soon toward Europe, and the United States saw their MRSA cases multiply. In

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