MRSA is a bacterial infection that does not respond to antibiotics and can enter the body through contact with contaminated surfaces. Symptoms include red bumps, pain, and pus-filled abscesses. Treatment includes antibiotics and drainage. In severe cases, MRSA can lead to pneumonia, septic shock, or necrotizing fasciitis.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterial infection that does not respond to antibiotics, such as penicillin, used to treat other staph infections. MRSA symptoms commonly appear near a wound or cut on the skin. If MRSA travels beyond the skin, symptoms may include fever, cough or trouble breathing.
MRSA can enter a person’s body if it comes in contact with a surface contaminated with bacteria. Usually, MRSA symptoms appear on the skin and initially look like a small red bump. A person may think that they have been bitten by a bug or that they have a pimple. The area infected with MRSA will usually be painful and filled with pus. If left untreated, the swollen area can develop into a skin abscess, which is a pocket under the skin’s surface filled with pus.
MRSA symptoms such as abscesses can be treated by drainage, especially if they haven’t gone very deep into the skin. Some antibiotics, such as vancomycin, can also clear up a MRSA infection. It is important for a person to take a full course of antibiotics to treat MRSA and to tell the doctor if there is no improvement.
If the disease is contained quickly enough, it will not travel beyond the skin and into other organs of the body. Unfortunately, MRSA sometimes enters a person’s lungs or bloodstream. These more serious infections typically occur in hospital settings, where they are spread from patient to patient.
A person who has the flu runs the risk of developing MRSA pneumonia if they come in contact with the bacteria. Symptoms of MRSA pneumonia include cough, difficulty breathing and chest pain. This generally occurs because a person’s immune system is worn down from fighting the flu and cannot fight off a further infection. Although MRSA pneumonia is deadly, it is not an airborne infection, like the flu is.
Other symptoms of MRSA can include headaches, body aches and feelings of fatigue. A person experiencing symptoms may just feel generally unwell, but not be sure what to blame. If the bacteria enter the bloodstream, a person can go into septic shock. In extremely rare and severe cases, MRSA can lead to a flesh-eating bacterial infection, necrotizing fasciitis. As the name suggests, the infection eats into the skin tissue and does a lot of damage to the body in a short span of time.
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