Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)

1. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) By: Alana Johnson, Brandon Foster, Jaret Dillard 1A

2. What is MRSA? • Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterium that causes infections in different parts of the body. It's tougher to treat than most strains of staphylococcus aureus -- or staph -- because it's resistant to some commonly used antibiotics.

3. Symptoms of MRSA: • The symptoms of MRSA depend on where you're infected. Most often, it causes mild infections on the skin, like sores or boils. But it can also cause more serious skin infections or infect surgical wounds, the bloodstream, the lungs, or the urinary tract.

4. Who gets MRSA? • MRSA infections are common among people who have weak immune systems and are in hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care centers. • MRSA is spread by contact. So, you could get MRSA by touching another person who has it on the skin. Or you could get it by touching objects that have the bacteria on them. • As many as 1.2 million U.S. hospital patients may be infected each year with a virulent staph infection like MRSA that's resistant to antibiotics • 423,000 US hospital patients are colonized with MRSA each year

5. Where does the staph-bacteria come from? Example of bacteria from MRSA • Staph bacteria can enter the skin through a cut or scrape or even through a break in dry skin. If left uncared for, staph or MRSA can lead to more serious problems, such as infecting blood or bones.

6. Background Information • 1959 Methicillin, the first beta-lactamase-resistant penicillin, was licensed in England • Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was discovered in 1961 in the United Kingdom. • It made its first major appearance in the United States in 1981 among intravenous drug users. MRSA is often referred to in the press as a “superbug.”

7. Treatment used now: • The emergence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as a cause of hospital- and community-associated infection has been reported worldwide and has become an increasing health care problem. Treatment options for MRSA infection are limited, complicated and expensive. List of antibiotic choices: • Penicillin • methicillin • clindamycin, • Minocycline • Tygacil • Cubicin • Zyvox • Synercid

8. What is MRSA resistant to…. • some 60 years after the discovery of the bacterium S. aureus, doctors began treating staph infections with penicillin. But the overuse and misuse of the drug helped the microbes evolve with resistance to penicillin • Doctors then started using methicillin to counter the growing problem of penicillin-resistant staph infections, and the new drug quickly became the common treatment for S. aureus, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. • MRSA is actually resistant to an entire class of penicillin-like antibiotics called beta-lactams. This class of antibiotics includes penicillin, amoxicillin, oxacillin, methicillin, and others

9. Why is MRSA resistant to its antibiotics? • Antibiotic resistance occurs when some bacteria have figured out how to outsmart antibiotics. • When an antibiotic is taken unnecessarily or improperly, some bacteria can survive. The surviving bacteria develop ways to become stronger or drug resistant. • Resistant bacteria can transfer this strength to other more dangerous bacteria. • Bacteria inside the body exchange, share, or copy genes that allow them to resist antibiotic treatment.

10. In the early years of the 21st century, we are seeing the value of antibiotics decline as more and more germs become resistant to them”. “Methicillin resistant Staph aureus is one important example of this trend” said Dr.Kautz. MRSA population change over time Antibiotic resistance increase: “This is a wakeup call that hospital administrators should understand the importance of this problem," said report author Dr. William Jarvis, an epidemiologist and president of the consulting firm, Jason and Jarvis Associates. Eventually all antibiotics will be resisted, and MRSA will not have an antibiotic treatment. • The rate of MRSA was higher than it has previously been estimated” Jarvis said. "Not only did we find MRSA in all states in all facilities, but 66 percent of it was on the medical service • which runs counter to previous beliefs that most MRSA was in intensive care units," said Dr. Katz, the director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine. “

11. Why it is important to find more treatments: Ways to treat the Infection: • For people with weakened immune systems who have become infected with MRSA, the best treatments are with the antibiotics vancomycin or teicoplanin. These two antibiotics are given as injections or through an intravenous drip and so are only given to people in hospital. • Certain groups of people are at a higher risk of infection with MRSA. For this reason, some healthy people are screened for MRSA by having a swab of their skin or inside of their nose taken. If these healthy people are found to be carrying MRSA on their skin or in their noses, they are normally treated with an antibiotic cream - mupirocin. • It is already a known fact that MRSA is resistant to the antibiotics penicillin and methicillin which is usually used to treat MRSA. • Using the money provided, creating a new antibiotic that could treat the infection will be useful. • Finding a treatment related to vancomycin is useful because it is not as resistant as other antibiotics used.

12. Sources: • Antimicrobial (Drug) Resistance (History, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Antimicrobial Resistance) • MRSA Research Center (: MRSA History Timeline: The First Half-Century, 1959-2009) • http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/antibiotic-resistance-mutation-rates-and-mrsa-28360 • http://consumer.healthday.com/general-health-information-16/doctor-news-206/1-2-million-u-s-patients-get-resistant-staph-each-year-605875.html