Common infections caused by S.aureus include:
The precautions taken in a healthcare setting are more because of the risk of spreading the bacteria to other immune suppressed patients or nursing home residents. Become familiar with these procedures and insist they are followed by healthcare workers at every level of the system. You don't want your infection spread to others, and you certainly don't want a piece of anybody elses action.
At least 95% of community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) infections appear on the skin or in the soft tissues. Most of these infections start out looking like a pimple or spider bite and may develop into boils or soft tissue infection. Most infections are usually mild and can be treated with oral antibiotics or topical creams.
Persons most at risk for CA-MRSA include prison inmates, participants in competitive sports (especially contact sports like wrestling and football), injection drug users, homosexual men and close contacts of patients with MRSA infections. *Please Note: While this is the popular opinion of the medical community, my son falls in none of these categories. He just had a cut on his leg.
Community-Acquired Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus
Methicillin-resistant S aureus (MRSA) first became prevalent in the 1970s, and has since become a very significant nosocomial pathogen. However, until the late 1990s, MRSA infections in the community were restricted to individuals in long-term care facilities, intravenous drug abusers, or those recently hospitalized. The past few years have seen a dramatic increase in community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) infections in patients who do not have risk factors.[5,32] An increase in the rate of CA-MRSA has been reported in all regions of the United States; in certain areas such as Texas, the rates of resistant strains were as high as 67% in 2002.[33,34]
The virulence of CA-MRSA also appears to be higher than in methicillin-sensitive strains. Although skin and soft-tissue infections still predominate, increased numbers of children with invasive CA-MRSA are being identified.[33]
Dr. Kaplan stated that 10% of cases of CA-MRSA in children present as a very severe infection, warranting critical care management. Usually, these occur in previously healthy patients who present with osteomyelitis or pulmonary involvement.
CA-MRSA isolates from children have tended to be susceptible to diverse nonrelated antibiotics such as vancomycin, clindamycin, gentamicin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX), in direct contrast to nosocomial strains that are frequently resistant to these antibiotics, particularly to clindamycin.[33,35]
In areas where CA-MRSA is prevalent, clindamycin or TMP-SMX has been recommended as initial empiric therapy for non-life-threatening infections (lymphadenitis, cellulitis, soft-tissue abscesses or osteomyelitis).[5,33] A recently published study indicated that skin and soft-tissue abscesses < 5 cm in diameter can be managed with incision and drainage alone, without use of additional antibiotic therapy.[34]
The treatment decision is more complex when confronted with a serious life-threatening infection in which CA-MRSA is thought to be the cause. It is important that rates of circulating clindamycin-resistant strains in the community be known by the treating physician. In some areas of the country, these have been found to be as high as 25%. Therefore, the critically ill patient with a staphylococcal infection should be treated initially with vancomycin until susceptibilities of the isolate are known unless the clinician is absolutely certain there is no clindamycin-resistant CA-MRSA in the community.[5,32]
Further confounding the issue is the fact that clindamycin-susceptible but erythromycin-resistant strains may exhibit inducible resistance to clindamycin (resistance developed on exposure to the antibiotic). CA-MRSA should be identified through use of the "D test"; clinicians should always request this test from their microbiological laboratory. Long-term therapy of CA-MRSA infections, such as osteomyelitis or empyema, cannot be prescribed until the isolate is documented to lack inducible resistance to clindamycin.[5]
Dr. Kaplan also provided very useful recommendations about how to deal with patients with recurrent episodes of CA-MRSA infection. These included keeping the patient's fingernails clipped short; daily changes of sleepwear, underwear, towels and wash cloths; the application of mupirocin to the patient's nares 2-3 times a day for 3-4 weeks, and biweekly baths with Clorox added to the bath water (1 tsp per gallon of water).
[Source: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/495300]
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