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How does MRSA affect our bodies?
Most often, it causes mild infections on the skin, like sores, boils, or abscesses. But it can also cause more serious skin infections or infect surgical wounds, the bloodstream, the lungs, or the urinary tract. Though most MRSA infections aren’t serious, some can be life-threatening.
What does MRSA do to your immune system?
Infections of the skin or other soft tissues by the hard-to-treat MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria appear to permanently compromise the lymphatic system, which is crucial to immune system function.
Is MRSA a systemic infection?
The inflamed area may be reddened, tender, swollen, and warm to the touch. These signs can also appear in MRSA-infected surgical incisions. When MRSA infection spreads beyond these areas to involve the bloodstream, systemic (body-wide) symptoms occur.
How long does MRSA stay in your system?
Consequently, a person colonized with MRSA (one who has the organism normally present in or on the body) may be contagious for an indefinite period of time. In addition, MRSA organisms can remain viable on some surfaces for about two to six months if they are not washed or sterilized.
What happens if you test positive for MRSA?
If your results are positive, it means you have a MRSA infection. Treatment will depend on how serious the infection is. For mild skin infections, your provider may clean, drain, and cover the wound. You may also get an antibiotic to put on the wound or take by mouth.
Will MRSA go away?
Getting MRSA on your skin will not make you ill, and it may go away in a few hours, days, weeks or months without you noticing. But it could cause an infection if it gets deeper into your body.
What is MRSA and why is it so dangerous?
These bacteria are called MRSA: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus . MRSA is dangerous because it cannot be treated with many standard antibiotics. MRSA behaves much like other staph bacteria. It most often lives in the nose or on the skin without causing disease.
What are the long term effects of MRSA?
Some long-term effects of meningitis are brain damage, hearing loss and blindness. Inflammation of the heart is a concern with MRSA. This can lead to infection of the heart valves and long-term heart problems. MRSA can cause toxic shock syndrome, leading to long-term damage of the kidneys, heart and liver.
How long does it take for MRSA to go away?
Normally it takes around 10 days to get complete recovery from MRSA infection. However, the time varies from person to person and depends upon a variety of factors.
Can you ever get rid of MRSA completely?
The good news is yes, and although MRSA is difficult to treat, and is resistant to many antibiotics, decolonisation and a few antibiotics can cure MRSA infections. A standard treatment can include the use of a chlorhexidine oral rinse, mupirocin nasal ointment, and a full-body wash using chlorhexidine soap for a period of 5 days.