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MRSA infection
Brijesh Singh Yadav brijeshbioinfo@gmail.comDisease Type:
Bacterial Disease
Common Name:
 
Community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA); Hospital-acquired MRSA(HA-MRSA)
Causative Agent:
strain of 
 
Staphylococcus aureus
Disease Discription:
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an infectioncaused by a strain of Staphylococcus aureus (
S. aureus
) bacteria that is highly resistant toantibiotics.
(2)
 . Most MRSA infections occur in hospitals or other health care settings,such as nursing homes and dialysis centers. It's known as
health care-associated MRSA,or HA-MRSA.
Older adults and people with weakened immune systems are at most risk of HA-MRSA. More recently, another type of MRSA has occurred among otherwisehealthy people in the wider community. This form,
community-associated MRSA, orCA-MRSA,
is responsible for serious skin and soft tissue infections and for a seriousform of pneumonia.
(4)
 
Fig. MRSA infection on skin
Causes of Disease:
S. aureus (“staph”) is a common bacteria that normally lives on the skin and sometimesin the nasal passages. MRSA refers to S. aureus strains that do not respond to theantibiotics normally used to cure staph infections.The bacteria can cause infection when it enters the body through a cut, sore, catheter, or  breathing tube. The infection can be minor and local (for example, a pimple), or moreserious (involving the heart or bone).Serious staph infections are more common in people with weak immune systems, usually patients in hospitals and long-term care facilities and those receiving kidney dialysis.
(2)
 
Antibiotics have been in use for many years as a successfull treatment and cure for staphinfections. However, these antibiotics have been overused, misused and over prescribedas a cure for staph aureus infection for many years. It is fairly common for people to notcomplete a course of antibiotics, or not use as prescribed. If this happens, it is probablethat not 100% of the bacterium that caused staph infection will have been killed.Surviving staph bacterium develop a resistance to this antibiotic and multiply. As moreand more antibiotics are prescribed, the number of staph bacterium that are able to resistthose antibiotics become more numerous. The biggest problem with the use of antibiotics,is that they are non-focused. Therefore, they do not discriminate between good and bad bacterium, otherwise known as 'Flora' which can be found in the large intestines and forma large part of the bodies immune system. Without this immune system protection,'superbugs' are free to develop.
(1)
Risk Factors:
 
People with higher risk of MRSA infection are those with obvious skin breaks (surgical patients, hospital patients with intravenous lines, burns, or skin ulcers) and patients withdepressed immune systems (infants, elderly, or HIV-infected individuals) or chronicdiseases (diabetes or cancer). Patients with pneumonia (lung infection) due to MRSA cantransmit MRSA by airborne droplets. Health-care workers as a group are repeatedlyexposed to MRSA-positive patients and can have a high rate of infection if precautionsare not taken. Health-care workers and patient visitors should use disposable masks,gowns, and gloves when they enter the MRSA-infected patient's room.
(5)
Causative Agent Description:
Pathogen Name:
 
Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus
Fig. Electron micrograph of MRSAPathogen Description:
Staphylococcus aureus is a species of bacterium commonlyfound on the skin and/or in the noses of healthy people. Although it is usually harmless atthese sites, it may occasionally get into the body (eg through breaks in the skin such asabrasions, cuts, wounds, surgical incisions or indwelling catheters) and cause infections.These infections may be mild (eg pimples or boils) or serious (eg infection of the bloodstream, bones or joints)
(3)
.MRSA is resistant to (unable to be killed by) all beta-lactam antibiotics. This includes all penicillins (e.g., amoxicillin) and cephalosporins (e.g., keflex).
 
Taxonoimic Classification:
DomainBacteriaKingdomBacteriaPhylumFirmicutesClassBacilliOrder BacillalesFamilyStaphylococcaceaeGenusStaphylococcusSpeciesS.aureus
S.aureus
Fig. A magnification of MRSA superbug(20,000 times)
Other Pathogenic speices:
 
Borderline-resistant S. Aureus (BORSA), Western Samoan phage-pattern methicillin-resistant
(10)
,
Staphylococcus epidermidis
,
Staphylococcusaureus
,
S lugdunensis, S haemolyticus, S warneri, S schleiferi, S intermedius
Morphology and toxin production:
Blood agar plates (1A-C)showing the the normal phenotype (1A) and SCV phenotype (1C) of 
S.aureus
; SCVs showingauxotrophism for hemin onchemically defined medium(2); electron micrographsshowing the intracellular  persistence of 
S. aureus
SCVs within viable HaCaTcells (3a, b) versus severelytic degeneration and releaseof bacteria in host cells infected with the normal
S. aureus
phenotype (3c, d); scanningelectron microscopy showing cells of “fried-egg” SCVs (4); and transmission electronmicroscopy showing incomplete or multiple cross walls of SCVs (5);
Mechanisms of antibiotic resistance in
 Staphylococcus aureus
biofilms andtreatment and prevention of biofilms
of 00

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