What Are MRSA Infections?
Medical research demonstrates that the bacteria known as Staphylococcus aureus (staph) is commonly carried on the skin or in the nose of healthy people. Approximately 25-30 percent of the population carries the bacteria, though it is not routinely transmitted or infectious. Sometimes, however, staph can cause serious skin, bloodstream, lungs, and surgical site infections and may be resistant to treatment with antibiotics. These more deadly antibiotic-resistant strains are known as MRSA or the superbug. MRSA caused more than 94,000 life-threatening infections and nearly 19,000 deaths in the United States in 2005, most of them associated with health care settings, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study published in the October 17, 2007 edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Outside of hospitals and health care facilities, at schools, colleges, prisons, and other facilities where there is close contact, a number of factors may con
