MRSA by Ashlyn Carter

 

A staph infection usually starts of as what would look like a bump, or spider bite, and eventually grows larger and is full of drainage. This can later turn into deep abscesses, which can cause even further damage and illness. If not treated this infection can get into your bones, and bloodstream, and then it could become life threatening, especially this specific type, MRSA.           Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), or better known as a staph infection, is a type of infection that has become resistant to many antibiotics used to treat most staph infections. This specific type of infection has affected millions of Americans and has killed hundreds of thousands. Some of these infections occur from being exposed to something at some kind of health care facility. This is called health care associated MRSA (HA-MRSA). Another way you can get this infection is through other people, healthy people, in the community. This is called community associated MRSA (CA-MRSA).  MRSA affects people all over the world, on a daily basis. This ongoing epidemic has continued to be ignored and is not being addressed.

            In 1959, methicillin was approved for use in Europe. By 1960, the first studied case of MRSA in Europe had occurred, which means in one year, a type of staph was produced, that was already resistant to the antibiotic invented to treat this infection (“MRSA Research Center”).  Not long after this, MRSA had spread to other countries, and continents. By 1967, MRSA had spread through Western Europe, and Australia. The first known outbreak of MRSA in America was in a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts in 1968. (“MRSA Research Center”) From then until 1990 MRSA was known as an epidemic among hospitals, and had spread all through the United States. Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, scientists and researchers began to study MRSA and how it occurs, and what it is exactly that occurs. They began to study and see what medications helped, and what medications MRSA was resistant to. In the mid 1990’s, many children began to become infected by MRSA. By 1999 there were multiple cases of children dying, due to MRSA(“MRSA Research Center”). Scientists to this day still study MRSA, and the different ways we can treat it. Scientist and researchers study the different strands of MRSA and the different effects it has on our bodies.

 MRSA is more common among those in clinical or hospital settings, but you can pick up MRSA in many everyday locations. Community Associated MRSA can be picked up in many places like gyms, schools, or even the grocery store. MRSA is more common in health care facilities because there are more germs and bacteria among people in hospitals. It is also more common because people in hospitals tend to have open wounds, which makes it easier for the infection to occur. Though that is not the only way to get MRSA, it is just the most common. MRSA can become very serious very quick. What can start off as a small abscess can turn into an infection in your bloodstream before you can tell; this can cause sepsis and death.

MRSA affects society in many ways. It can affect anyone who comes in contact with the bacteria. People of all ages can get MRSA.  Sometimes, MRSA can come from a bite or wound that wasn’t taken care of correctly and somehow got infected. Some people can be carriers of staph in their nose, and not show any symptoms. “33% of people carry staph in their nose, usually without illness” (“MRSA Tracking”). This doesn’t mean that they have MRSA, it just means that they are more susceptible to the infection compared to people who are not carriers.

MRSA is not always just a boil on the skin, or infection in the bloodstream. MRSA can cause pneumonia, a specific methicillin resistant type of pneumonia, which makes it very difficult to treat. In one case in London, Kentucky, a man named Eric Allen is said to have went to bed thinking he had a typical case of the flu, but woke up the next morning coughing up tissue from his lungs ("Dangerous MRSA Bacteria Expand into Communities."). He went to the hospital, eventually his organs began to fail, and he went into a coma ("Dangerous MRSA Bacteria Expand into Communities."). Right after his case, two more identical cases of the same strand appeared in the same area as Allen, and they were both fatal.

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aurous is very contagious, and hard to prevent completely. This specific bacteria can live on any surface, for an extended amount of time. There is really no known solution to MRSA. One of the only preventions is to keep things clean and disinfected. One of the most common ways MRSA spreads in health care facilities is from utensils and materials not being properly cleaned. Because MRSA can live on any surface for several months it is important to always keep the environment clean. Schools, hospitals, and gyms, are just some of the places that should be regularly cleaned to help prevent the spread of MRSA. This is such a strong a bacteria to kill because of its resistance to most antibiotics, which is why it is so difficult to find a solution for it.  Scientists and specialists are still studying to find solutions to MRSA as a whole.

            Absurdity is the small or large events or situations that occur in the world, which we don’t understand. There is no explanation of absurdity. We don’t know why things happen. The idea of absurdity is that humans can never understand the meaning of existence, or why things happen. This is what Albert Camus discussed in his literary works (“The Absurdist Explains: What is: Absurdism?”). Camus talked about how he believed the meaning of life was absurd. That there was no true meaning of existence, and that the absurd thing was that humans still search for that meaning in life (“Camus and Absurdity”). The epidemic on MRSA does not really relate to Camus and his beliefs. We know why MRSA has begun to spread, and why it happens in the first place. MRSA forms because a staph bacteria built up a resistance to an antibiotic that was used to treat it. After using the same antibiotic to treat a staph infection repeatedly, the bacteria slowly began to build up a resistance to the antibiotic, which means it progressively started to not work as well, and eventually not at all.

            MRSA is an important epidemic to be aware of. It can affect all people, at any time. So it is important to know of it, and do the things you can to prevent the spread of the infection. MRSA could be something like a boil on the skin, or even something serious like MRSA pneumonia. MRSA could be life threatening and has already taken the lives of many people. In 2005 more people died from MRSA, than aids. MRSA was responsible for 18,650 deaths (“More U.S. Deaths From MRSA Than Aids”). MRSA is not a very well-known epidemic. Many people who know of MRSA are people who work in health care facilities.

            If you work in a hospital or clinic there are certain things you must do in order to follow protocol and keep from spreading MRSA. Some of these things include, washing hands well with hand sanitizer or soap and water before caring for any patient, cleaning rooms and medical equipment, using certain precautions when caring for someone with MRSA, and many other things (“MRSA”). Health care workers are very aware of the precautions they have to take when dealing with people who have MRSA, because if they make one small mistake the infection can spread.

Work Cited

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