MEDICAL DICTIONARY
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: Staphylococci (staph bacteria) that have become resistant to antibiotics, including the penicillin-related antibiotics such as methicillin. Abbreviated MRSA.
MRSA first cropped up among persons in hospitals and other health facilities, especially affecting the elderly, the very sick, and those with an open wound (such as a bedsore) or a tube going into their body (such as a urinary catheter or IV catheter). MRSA has since been found to cause illness in the community outside of hospitals and other health facilities. MRSA in the community is associated with recent antibiotic use, sharing contaminated items, having active skin diseases, and living in crowded settings. Skin infections caused by MRSA have clustered among injecting drug-users, Native Americans, prison inmates, and athletes in close-contact sports. Community-associated MRSA infections are typically affect the skin, but also can cause severe illness. Some children have died from community-associated MRSA.
The transmission of MRSA is largely from people with active MRSA skin infections. MRSA is almost always spread by direct physical contact, and not through the air. Spread may also occur through indirect contact by touching objects (such as towels, sheets, wound dressings, clothes, workout areas, sports equipment) contaminated by the infected skin of a person with MRSA. The measures for preventing the spread of MRSA are designed to counter the usual modes of transmission.
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