Golden Staph Research Paper

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.

The Staphylococcus aureus bacteria belongs to the Staphylococcaceae family. It is small, round shaped, and non-motile. Staphylococcus aureus stains gram positive and can often be found in small clusters (Mandal, 2010). It often forms chains and is a large contributor of soft tissue infections. It is of a yellow color, hence the name ?aureus? which comes from the Latin term ?aurum? for gold (Orenstein, n.d.). Staphylococcus aureus is found in a few spots on the human body, such as the nasal passage, the skin, the oral cavity, and even the gastrointestinal tract. Staphylococci and Streptococci are two different strands of the bacteria and are very hard to distinguish from one another. In order to tell the difference between them, without a microscope, a catalase test needs to be performed. The test is undergone by adding 3% hydrogen peroxide to both samples. Since Staphylococci are catalase positive, meaning they produce catalase, they will produce O? while the Streptococci will not because Streptococci are catalase negative (Todar, n.d.).

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

Staphylococcus aureus is a microorganism that appears on several diverse surfaces. This bacterium lives harmlessly on the skin as part of the normal flora. Hard surfaces are also covered in S. aureus. The microorganism is gram positive.

Antibiotic resistant infections are not only increasing, but intensifying exponentially. Even worse, there are few drugs readily available to diminish the swelling number of contagions; a sparse and meager quantity of combatants to tackle the vehement and aggressive pathogenic bacterium. These microscopic organisms, though infinitesimal, cause gigantic problems and wreak extra havoc when they attack the drugs prescribed to destroy and eradicate them, and survive. In culmination, they are more resilient, more powerful than ever before. Many of these superbugs are stronger and more alive, violently destroying the immune system of the body that has become their habitat, instead of ultimately dying. The tiny,

MRSA stands for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and is a bacterial infection that is highly resistant to some antibiotics. In short, antibiotics have been used since the 40's to stop the growth of bacteria. However, the more antibiotics are used, the quicker the bacteria become resistant to it while each year more types of bacteria adapt and become resistant to antibiotics. With MRSA being so resistant to many of the antibiotics, classifying it as a “super-bug”, it makes treatment of skin infections and invasive internal infections much more complicated. This leads to many yearly deaths. In fact, MRSA statistics show that more people die each year from MRSA infections than the

The main hospital strains are already partially or fully resistant to the effects of commonly used antibiotics. Resistance is also emerging to last resort drugs like vancomycin. The more virulent community strains of MRSA are infiltrating hospitals while the more resistant hospital strain is leaking into the community. The history of MRSA as described in Superbug shows how quickly bacteria can evolve when we add a strong selective force like antibiotics. Around the world, species of bacteria are becoming “superbugs” that are resistant to conventional treatments. Pharmaceutical companies are cutting research on new antibiotics in favor of more profitable investments. We are quickly running out of options for treating multi-drug resistant bacteria. As we move toward a “post-antibiotic” world, there are valuable lessons to be found in the history of MRSA, one of the first superbugs. Students in Emerging Diseases should read Superbug to learn about the complex emergence of

When Penicillin was first introduced in the early 1940’s to treat bacterial infection, resistance strains of Staphylococcus Aureus were completely unidentified. However, only a decade later, the disease was already becoming very common in hospital environments. Because of this, Methicillin was introduced in 1961 to medicate these resistance strains, yet within a single year, doctors were already encountering Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (as cited in Upshaw-Owens & Bailey, 2012) MRSA-related infections have risen from 2% of S.aureus infections in 1974 to 64% in 2004. In the United States 46% of S.aureus cases are Methicillin resistant. The rise in infection rates is alarming and

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is bacteria that have evolved in becoming resistant to several antibiotics. The resistance has led the bacteria to become more dangerous as different ways of treating the infections have become less. The bacteria that survive antibiotics and reproduce are a result of natural selection (British Broadcasting Corporation, 2017). All the weak bacteria are killed, whereas, all the strong “superbugs” are left. MRSA is confined in hospitals across the world, and community associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) is now widening into the general public (Goetghebeur, Landry, Han, & Vicente, 2007). This serious health issue is the transmission of bacteria resistant organisms that have a potential for morbidity

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria are resistant to all beta-lactam antibiotics such as methicillin, penicillin, oxacillin, and amoxicillin. Sometimes called a “super-bug” because of its ability to resist so many of our antibiotics. MRSA can be fatal and according to the CDC, of the over 80,000 invasive MRSA infections every year, 11,285 related deaths occur. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become the bacteria of this decade.

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.

The discovery of antibiotics is arguably the greatest contribution to modern medicine. The widespread use of antibiotics along with vaccines had paved the way for the treatment and cure for many of the otherwise fatal bacteria diseases and this led to a decline in the mortality rates in the mid-20th century. The use of antibiotics in medicine today to treat diseases have not all been met with positive outcomes. As a matter of fact, its relative ease of access and abundance has given rise to a major problem in creating new strains of bacteria that are able to resist our antibiotics today. Such is the case for a special type of bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, a gram-positive bacterium with a spherical shape which in some strains of this particular species has ultimately developed resistance to virtually all antibiotics we have present today. Staphylococcus aureus is often found on skin surfaces in humans colonizing about 30% of the human population [1]. They generally are not pathogenic until they enter inside the body through an open wound or colonize other areas of the body of which they generally are not found [1]. Staphylococcus aureus commonly cause non-fatal skin diseases such as folliculitis, cellulitis and abscesses however, they can invade the circulatory system and cause a serious infection known as bacteremia [1,9]. Bacteremia is often common in a hospital setting where patients are exposed to invasive procedures such as surgeries which allow colonies of S.

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).

The effects of this in healthcare can be seen in the infamous MRSA – Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus which is not just