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Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)

With a show of hands, how many of you have heard the term “super bug”? How many of you have heard the term “MRSA” or mersa?
Tonight it is my goal to educate you on MRSA.
First, we need to understand what a super bug is or what does this term mean. It does, in reality, sound quite science fiction and quite scary doesn’t it?
A “super bug” is defined as a strain of bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics.
Now, how many of you are familiar with the term staphyloccus aureus or “staph” for short. All of us have many microorganisms that live in harmony on our skin and for the most part, we don’t even know they are there. Staph is one of these microorganisms, or “bugs” that live on our skin. When we get a cut on our skin and it becomes infected, most of the time staph is the responsible party.
Next, lets break down the big scarry words methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureaus. Methicillin is a drug. It is in the penicillin family and is most commonly used to treat infections caused by staph. So, if you combine the words methicillin resistant ……. It simply means it is a strain of staph infection that is resistant to the antibiotic most commonly used to treat staph infections. So, methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureas simply means it is a staph infection resistant to the drug methicillin. It is also resistant to amoxicillin, oxacillin, penicillin, and many other antibiotics. Are there drugs available to treat MRSA? Of course, most commonly vancomicin or sometimes doctors will use a combination of 2 or more drugs but MRSA is very treatable. But, MRSA is a living bug and is constantly evolving making it difficult at times for scientists to keep up with the many strains.

So, if MRSA is treatable, why all the panic in the news? Well, for one, it’s very contagious. It can live on a surface

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