MRSA Treatment
MRSA is a strain of staph infection that cannot be cured through the standard antibiotic treatments. Usually, staph infections are treated by antibiotics called beta-lactams, which include penicillin, methicillin, oxacillin and amoxicillin. Despite the infection’s resistance to most antibiotics, antibiotic therapy is still the only known MRSA treatment.
Researchers are constantly battling to gain the upper-hand against MRSA bacteria. They use antibiotics that pass certain microbiological tests. These tests utilize Kirby-Bauer antibiotic discs on agar plates to determine which antibiotics may be effective against MRSA bacteria. Because the bacteria are so resistant, one type of antibiotic alone is rarely enough to combat the bacteria. Instead, a combination of two or more types of antibiotics is used to treat those with MRSA infections. This combination may include vancomycin, linezolid, sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim or rifampin.
Sometimes, less severe infections are treated with mupirocin. This form of treatment for MRSA is limited to skin infections that have not progressed to the bloodstream, but is usually effective in halting the infection before it grows severe. Beyond antibiotic treatments, there are few surgical treatments that are used in an attempt to treat the infection. The first such treatment is draining the pus from skin boils that usually indicate the present or near future spread of the infection from skin to the bloodstream.
Any foreign body that may be a source of infection such as artificial grafts and heart valves, must be removed to increase the effectiveness of the antibiotic treatment. In severe cases of MRSA, surgical procedures may be necessary to remove body parts that are infected with MRSA. This is often the route taken with those who have a concentrated staph infection in the extremities, but have not yet contracted it in the internal organs. A limb is usually deemed a worthy sacrifice to keep the infection away from the heart, where it would almost certainly result in death.
Even when these surgeries are undertaken, the individual will be treated with several antibiotics in order to kill all remaining MRSA bacteria in the body. If the bacteria are not killed, they can spread again, and the symptoms may be even more severe since the immune system is now even more susceptible.
Many patients die from MRSA because it is so resistant to treatment. Even with the time and effort being invested in developing new antibiotics, in many cases these drugs are still not enough to protect a victim from death.
