Mersa Disease Definition
Being familiar with MERSA disease is very important. MRSA or MERSA is an abbreviation for the name of an infectious condition called Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. Mersa is found most commonly to infect patients who have been hospitalized, though it has the ability to affect anyone. People that contract the infection outside of hospitals often come into contact with the infectious bacteria through personal contact with a clinic or hospital employee who has been exposed to an infected person. The reason MRSA can be a serious infection is because of the nature of the bacteria, the staphylococcus aureus, which is known for its antibiotic-resistant properties.
Mersa Disease Information
Your reaction to MERSA disease may vary. Sometimes, a person can be infected with the bacteria for a period of a month or more without experiencing any symptoms. However, when people become infected with the bacteria at the point of entry for a surgery, or on top of a burn or catheter site, the infected area can swell, often changing color to a bright red and becoming itchy and irritable. MRSA can also affect the membranous areas of the body, the eyes, anywhere on the topical layers of the skin, and the blood. When this happens, the infected person can experience heat rashes from fevers as well as open sores.
If you believe that you have contracted mersa disease, you should see a doctor immediately. The doctor will examine the possibly infected area, which could include doing blood work, and possibly obtaining a sample of the infection from the visible infection site. The doctor places the specimen on what is called a culture plate. The culture plate is then used to keep the specimen warmed in an incubator unit until the laboratory can subject the sample to its testing process, which involves introducing the sample to different antibiotics in order to test the resistance level of the infection.
Because of the resistant nature of mersa disease, popular antibiotics such as penicillin (among a number of others) do not have the ability to effectively treat a MRSA infection. As a matter of fact, the only antibiotic treatment that has been found to be able to treat and rid a patient of a MRSA infection is called vancomycin. However, there have been a number of new MRSA strains that have been found to have built up resistance levels to the vancomycin, leading researchers to believe there is a need for newer, stronger antibiotics to be introduced in order to deal with mersa disease.