MRSA Notes

Basic MRSA information from the Billings Gazette (Montana):

An old bacterium with new skills has the Billings medical community on alert.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, can cause life-threatening infections that are difficult to treat.

It can also live on a person’s body without causing any problems at all.

“You have more bacteria on your skin than cells in your body,” said Dr. David Graham, an infectious-disease specialist at Billings Clinic. “Most of those bacteria are good. They prevent bad bacteria from causing infections.”

MRSA, pronounced “mersa,” is one of the bad ones. It is one of many Staphylococcus - or staph - bacteria that cause painful and sometimes dangerous infections.

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