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Causes, Symptoms and Treatment for MRSA

MRSA or Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus is an active bacterial infection; it is highly contagious. This property of the bacterium has led it to be known as a kind of “superbug.” MRSA is resistant to some antibiotics such as methicillin, amoxicillin, penicillin, and oxacillin. This bacterium is infamous because it is very challenging to treat.

Causes, Symptoms and Treatment for MRSA
If you have MRSA in your bloodstream, you have to be administered with intravenous antibiotics. However, as it is a dynamic bacterium, increased resistance to antibiotics have been noted over the past few years.
Although, if you catch MRSA early and it is just a small boil on the surface of your skin, your doctor can drain it by making an incision.

The symptoms usually surface themselves as a skin sore: a pimple or a boil during the first stage. Post this; it has the potential to get very severe and, in the worst case, it can get fatal. In case you recognize these symptoms, it is important to go to your healthcare provider and get it diagnosed. Your doctor is likely to take cultures from the infected area as well as a couple of vials of blood, urine, and sputum to be sure of your condition.

Causes
The most common way to contract MRSA is skin-to-skin contact. The MRSA bacteria can also survive for long time periods on daily objects such as doors, tables, chairs, and so on. The staph bacteria that causes MRSA is the Staphylococcus bacteria. Usually, most people carry the staph bacteria without even knowing it. Some of the other causes are:

  • A break in the skin barrier caused during the postoperative stage could lead to complications such as the bacteria getting past this obstacle through the open wound.
  • A compromised immune system makes you more susceptible to getting a staph infection. This infection can even spread in the confines of a hospital as it permanently houses some sick patients, many of whom are carriers of the Staphylococcus bacteria.
  • Most aged people have weakened immune systems due to certain health conditions or even multiple complex health issues. This makes their immune system and their body a container of the staph bacteria.
  • A severe skin condition could also trigger the attack of the bacterium on a specific person. As it initially presents itself as a rash or a scab, it is easy to miss and can get extremely severe in some cases.
  • Suffering from numerous ailments throughout your life and having to take a large number of antibiotics can lead to your body forming a resistance to the same antibiotics that would protect you from MRSA. This, in turn, makes you more susceptible to MRSA.

Prevention
There are some precautions you can keep in mind and follow to avoid contracting MRSA. You should remember that this disease is transmitted from one person’s skin to another by contact or even if the affected person touches an object that you happen to touch, after them. It is highly contagious and some protective measures, such as the following, need to be taken.

  • Make sure the environment you live in is clean and hygienic.
  • Be careful of cuts and grazes. Make sure you clean your wounds and dress them immediately.
  • Avoid large crowds and gatherings, such as concerts, if there is a rumor or even a slight whisper of MRSA in your environment.
  • Avoid sharing unwashed towels. And wash your towels regularly.
  • Don’t share personal items such as razors, nail cutters, hairbrushes, toothbrushes, lipsticks, other makeup products, and contact lenses.
  • Carry hand sanitizers and use them before and after every meal, especially when you are at a public canteen or restaurant.
  • Stay away from known contaminated areas.

In the following sections, we state how to treat MSRA with medical treatments and home remedies

How to treat MRSA with medical treatments
After understanding the symptoms, an individual must read and understand how to treat MRSA. This skin disorder is extremely contagious and needs to be treated immediately. If not, they can spread to your blood and lungs and cause pneumonia. A medical combination of oral and topical antibiotics are generally used to treat MRSA. Common antibiotics like methicillin, amoxicillin, and penicillin don’t affect the bacterium, but there are some antibiotics that do. They can either be trimethoprim, sulfamethoxazole or clindamycin, or a combination of any of the two. Doctors prescribe these antibiotics in conjunction with another antibiotic type known as rifampin depending on the intensity of the infection.

Because of the way antibiotics work, even if you do appear to get and feel better, it is important you finish your full course so that the majority of the bacteria get killed. In addition to oral antibiotics, a topical antibiotic ointment is also prescribed as well. You can apply these ointments directly on the lesions after a thorough cleaning. They help make the lesions less painful and eventually go away.

How to treat MRSA with home remedies
There are many well-known and accepted ways of how to treat MRSA naturally at home. As MRSA is a bacterial infection, you can use a vast collection of naturally occurring products and organic home remedies to treat the symptoms. These have been proven over time to be extremely effective. Here are a few ways in which one can treat MRSA:

  • Tea tree oil
    A well-known antibacterial agent is tea tree oil. It helps heal the infected area effectively by topical application. You should use it every day to see an improvement in the infection.
  • Olive leaf extract
    The oil obtained from olive leaves help cure and fight the MRSA infection. It contains compounds of oleuropein which fights against the bacteria. You can use it topically to get relief.
  • Thyme
    This is a well-known herb that is used in a variety of dishes to add flavor. A less known fact is that it helps fight bacteria and so can treat MRSA infection. Take it orally as it can irritate your skin if you apply it directly on the skin.
  • Lapachol Tea
    Drinking this tea 2–8 times every day introduces antibacterial agents into your body that help fight the MRSA infection and treats it effectively over a short period of time.

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