Bacteria are single celled organisms that are on nearly every surface of the planet. These organisms are both helpful and disease causing. Your body contains millions of bacteria. They are everywhere, your skin, your eyes, your hair, and on the inside of your body. Most of these organisms are harmless, and even beneficial. These types of bacteria are called “normal flora”, which means they grow normally, and are part of the human being.
Bacteria in your lower intestine help manufacture vitamins from the waste material there. Bacteria on your skin might be warding off a fungal infection. Other bacterial swarms may be keeping a harmful species from taking control. There are harmful organisms on and in your body. They arrive every second of every day. Your body’s natural immune system keeps them in check. If your immune system starts to wane, you become ill by infection from one or many of these organisms.
On your skin and in your body are the Staphylococcal bacteria. Most of the family of this organism is harmless. From pimples to blackheads, the Staphylococcus Epidermidus bacteria only cause minor irritations. This is the most prevalent of the skin organisms. They go about living from dead tissue or waste material. There are, however, much more harmful bacteria on everyone’s skin. That is called Staphylococcus Aureus, and to someone who works in the field of Clinical Microbiology, it would be hailed as an Opportunistic Pathogen. This simply means that if a condition arises, say a drop in immune system or a wound that is not treated correctly, these bacteria can invade and cause severe damage, sometimes resulting in death.
Staphylococcus Aureus, or Staph Aureus for short, can be lethal. Septicemia, or blood poisoning, is usually the cause of death after an infection of this dangerous disease. This is when an untreated wound or infection gets virulent to the point of allowing the bacteria to enter the bloodstream. Red streaks from the infections and fever usually follow. If left untreated, death is usually the outcome. Staph Aureus needs blood and tissue to survive, and when it feeds on them, it causes a breakdown of the tissue with its waste material. The toxins that are released are what cause the illnesses. Staph Aureus can break down skin and other tissues when active in an infection, and medical attention should be given as soon as possible.
A new strain of Staph Aureus has risen from hospitals and nursing homes over the past two decades. This is the strain commonly known as MRSA. MRSA stands for Methicillin-Resistant-Staphylococcus-Aureas. Methicillin was no longer used by the time the organism got this name as Oxycillin was the replacement drug. This antibiotic is used in the indication of susceptibility to Staph infection treatment, but MRSA Staph has shown resistance. Antibiotics that are now widely used to aid in the treatment of MRSA infections are Flucloxacillin or Dicloxacillin.
People susceptible to these infections are diabetics, immunocompromised individuals such as the extended aged or those suffering from HIV. If you suspect an infection, get to your healthcare provider right away. You may feel healthy, but these bacteria work quickly on an open wound.
Currently there is a plan to help stop the spread of this disease. People being admitted for the first time in hospitals and nursing homes are being “swabbed” – a cotton swab is gently rubbed on the inside of each nostril, and the swab is then put on bacterial growing plates for forty-eight to seventy two hours. There, in the lab, a variety of testing is done to indicate whether it is MRSA, Staph Aureus, or non-pathogenic. If MRSA is indicated, that patient can still be treated, but in quarantine until the infection is eliminated.
The worries of MRSA are real. If this “super bug” becomes resistant to any other of the antibiotics that currently successfully treat it, then a pandemic is right around the corner. Misuse or overuse of antibiotics in the past has caused this mutation. Monitoring and epidemiology of hospitals and nursing homes, as well as clinics and doctors’ offices is the only route that should be taken to help eradicate the organism.
MRSA is usually spread from person-to-person, which is why hospitals and nursing homes are doubling their efforts to help eliminate causes of transference. This does not mean to fear your local hospital. On the contrary, your local hospitals are more than aware of this threat and are doing everything they can to keep the infections under control. My best defense for MRSA is the new silver sol technology learn more today by watching these Silver Sol Video’s.
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