Essay On Staphylococcus Aureus

“Superbug” is the nickname given to the bacterium MRSA. It is called this because of its resistance to most antibiotics (1). Each year there are approximately 126,000 people hospitalized and 19,000

Using personal items of someone who has MRSA, such as towels, wash cloths, clothes or athletic equipment.

The reason this disease has been able to infect more and more people over time is because MRSA is a strain of staph that has become resistant to certain antibiotics that would normally be used to treat normal staph infections.

Antibiotics are inarguably one of the greatest advances in medical science of the past century. Although the first natural antibiotic Penicillin was not discovered until 1928 by Scottish biologist Alexander Flemming, evidence exists that certain plant and mold growths were used to treat infections in ancient Egypt, ancient India, and classical Greece (Forrest, 1982). In our modern world with the advent of synthetic chemistry synthetic antibiotics like Erithromycin and its derivative Azithromycin have been developed. Antibiotics have many uses including the treatment of bacterial and protozoan infection, in surgical operations and prophylactically to prevent the development of an infection. Through these applications, antibiotics have saved countless lives across the world and radically altered the field of medicine. Though a wonderful and potentially lifesaving tool, antibiotic use is not without its disadvantages. Mankind has perhaps been too lax in regulation and too liberal in application of antibiotics and growing antibiotic resistance is the price we must now pay. A recent study showed that perhaps 70% of bacterial infections acquired during hospital visits in the United States are resistant to at least one class of antibiotic (Leeb, 2004). Bacteria are not helpless and their genetic capabilities have allowed them to take advantage of society’s overuse of antibiotics, allowing them to develop

A Superbug is a bacterium that can live in the human body and has the ability to withstand all forms of antibiotic medication. Superbugs are becoming increasingly significant in modern medicine as they are becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics. Antibiotics were discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming (Walsh and McManus, 2000). This resulted in a huge movement forward in medical history and even greatened human life expectancy. Since then antibiotics have been widely used and abused, people began to treat everything with this ‘miracle’ drug. If antibiotics are continually used as bacteria grows exponentially more resistant to them then eventually society will fall back into an era without the readily

Currently it is resistant to, or rather unaffected by, commonly used antibiotics such as methicillin, amoxicillin, penicillin, oxacillin, and many others, and is consequently much more challenging to treat than most strains of staphylococcus aureus—or staph. Some antibiotics still work, but MRSA is constantly adapting, and researchers and developers are having a difficult time keeping up.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a spherical bacteria which is known to produce a cytotoxin called Panton-Valentine leucocidin (PLV) which destroys leukocytes, and kills tissue (Lina et al., 1999). Five percent of strains of Staphylococcus are known to produce the disease-causing toxin (Lina et al., 1999), but though the amount of PLV-producing strains is somewhat small, the strains which produce PLV are apparently resistant to vancomycin, an antibiotic commonly used to treat staph infections (CDC, 2002). The first recorded case of S. aureus resistance to vancomycin was a reduction in sensitivity to the antibiotic observed in Japan, and has since spread to the United States (CDC, 2002). The most common source of infection of these drug-resistant bacteria are actually in hospitals, wherein the patients are exposed to the bacteria and subsequently infected (CDC, 2002).

Infections caused by antibiotic-resistant strains often occur in epidemic waves initiated by one or a few successful clones. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) is prominently featured during these epidemics. Historically associated with hospitals and other healthcare settings, MRSA now has emerged as a widespread cause of community infections. The majority of Staphylococcus aureus strains are now resistant to penicillin and methicillin (MRSA). Golden staph is creating headlines across the world, the superbug is becoming unstoppable. According to government statistics “one in five cases were resistant to antibiotics” (Alexander, 2017). Scientist are trying to eradicate golden staph with antibiotics, however they are adapting rapidly. Scientists are yet to identify how exactly the bacteria keeps adapting. Antibiotics attack infections by meddling with the bacterial ribosome, which is the part of the cell that makes proteins. If a cell cannot make protein, it dies. “The way the antibiotic works is it throws a spanner in the works. The drug comes in and jams up the machine so the cell can't make protein anymore. “Antibiotic-resistant bacteria find a way to apply oil and restart the machined Belousoff's team compared the cell structure of resistant and non-resistant strains of golden staph under an electron microscope to learn that the latter infections had developed a mutation several

The article “The End of Antibiotics” discusses a 57 year old man that was dying and how doctors could only sit by while his condition deteriorated. This man was not shot or stabbed, he was infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria that was slowly killing him. He died months later after being bombarded with antibiotics in the form of capsules, tablets, and IVs (Begley par.1). This is the unsettling power that superbugs like this one has over modern day medicine. A superbug is a bacteria that has evolved its cellular structure to resist antibiotics. Dr. Richard Wenzel of the University of Iowa stated, “Only a few years after penicillin came into wide use with World War II, strains of staph had emerged

When penicillin was released to the public in 1944, it was a miracle drug. Infections that had been killers were suddenly treatable. Doctors recommended it generously, both for illnesses that needed it and illnesses that didn’t. Before long, however, it took much stronger doses to see penicillin’s effects. When the antibiotic arms race began in 1944, most physicians assumed that new antibiotics would be discovered or created to keep up with the evolving resistance in bacteria, but the bacteria are constantly evolving new defenses and doctors are starting to run low on antibiotic ammunition. MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is one of many types of bacteria

Staphylococcus aureus is a gram-positive coccal bacterium, 1µm in diameter, forming grape like clusters or clumps, and is the most important pathogen amongst Staphylococci bacteria. A gram stain was performed on unknown bacteria #41, producing a purple, gram positive cocci bacteria appearing in grape like clusters or clumps under microscope. A streak plate test on nutrient agar was performed resulting in yellowish colonies on the nutrient agar. A catalase test was then performed with a positive Staphylococcus result. Mannitol Salt Agar plate was then used to determine between Staphylococcus aureus and Stapylococcus epidermidis.

Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been a type of multidrug resistant organism and staph bacteria known to cause serious infection that can lead to long hospitalizations and death. It can begin as a simple infection on skin or in the lungs, and if left untreated, can lead to traveling to the bloodstream and causing sepsis (“Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), 2015”). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 33 percent of individuals carry the staph bacteria intranasally and two percent of individuals carry MRSA (“Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), 2015”). Even though this is a serious issue among healthcare settings all over the country, the number of people affected

Life History and Characteristics: Staphylococcus aureus is a gram positive bacterium that is usually found in the nasal passages and on the skin of 15 to 40% of healthy humans, but can also survive in a wide variety of locations in the body. This bacterium is spread from person to person or to fomite by direct contact. Colonies of S. aureus appear in pairs, chains, or clusters. S. aureus is not an organism that is contained to one region of the world and is a universal health concern, specifically in the food handling industries.

Take for example MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), a S. aureus strain that was discovered in 1961 to be resistant to the antibiotic methicillin. Webmd indicates that MRSA has now grown its resistance from methicillin to “amoxicillin, penicillin, oxacillin and many other common antibiotics” (MRSA). This increase in resistance of a methicillin-resistant strain of S. aureus can be attributed to the increasing use and overuse of antibiotics, not only in the doctor’s office but also in agriculture. MRSA is only one of many antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. New resistant strains are evolving rapidly. According to Dr. Ed Warren, “there are high levels of antibiotic resistance in bacteria causing common infections (e.g. urinary tract infections, pneumonia, bloodstream infections) in all regions of the world” (21).

Less than 50 years after penicillin was discovered, strains of bacteria were discovered to be resistant to antibiotics (Haddox, 2013). Over the years scientists have changed the structure of the antibiotics to avoid this resistance, every time the bacteria adapts to overcome the changes. Bacteria divides as fast as 20 minutes and have many different ways to adapt (Haddox, 2013). Bacteria pass their drug resistance between strains and species, causing antibiotics to be less effective to all bacteria (Haddox, 2013).