MRSA is a dangerous bacteria that can cause serious infections in newborns and children, including skin infections, pneumonia, and sepsis. It is resistant to many antibiotics and often originates in hospitals, so extra precautions must be taken in neonatal intensive care units. Symptoms include fever, lethargy, and pain.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacteria that can cause infections of the skin and other parts of the body. It can be serious or fatal for those with compromised immune systems, such as young children and infants, and is resistant to many antibiotics currently used to treat the bacteria. Signs of MRSA in newborns include fever and a boil, sore, or skin infection that doesn’t heal with normal treatment. MRSA can affect nearly every system in the body, and a child infected with the MRSA bacteria can exhibit a multitude of symptoms common to any bacterial disease. General pain and lethargy, coughing and difficulty breathing are all possible symptoms of MRSA in children.
The first sign of MRSA in infants is often a pimple-like sore that resembles an insect bite and includes drainage or pus. Redness, pain, or soreness often accompany the sore or sores, and you may also notice a fever. Impetigo, a common skin disease in newborns, can also be caused by the MRSA bacteria. Signs of impetigo include fluid-filled blisters that most commonly appear on the diaper area, buttocks, and face. When an infant or child has a skin infection, rash, or blemish that doesn’t respond to treatment, the child’s caregiver should see a doctor.
Like most other disease-causing bacteria, MRSA can also infect the blood or various organs in the body. MRSA inside the body is typically more dangerous than a skin infection, and a child with an internal MRSA infection could be suffering from a variety of symptoms. Lung infections, for example, can lead to pneumonia, coughing and shortness of breath. Other general symptoms of MRSA in newborns include fever, tremors, chills, lethargy and pain. If the MRSA bacteria cause sepsis, a blood infection, your child may have an abnormal heart rate and white blood cell count, rapid and shallow breathing, and decreased consciousness.
A large percentage of MRSA infections originate in the hospital. For this reason it is important to consider the effects of MRSA on hospitalized children. Seriously ill or premature babies are usually treated in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). If test results show that an infant in the unit is colonized with MRSA bacteria, additional precautions should be taken to prevent an outbreak of MRSA in infants. Nurses, doctors and possibly family members will be required to take extra MRSA precautions such as wearing gowns and gloves when in contact with the child and proper handwashing procedures are essential.
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