What Causes Mercer Disease?
Mercer disease or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is defined as “a strain of Staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to a large group of antibiotics called the beta-lactams, which include the penicillins and the cephalosporins”. “Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium responsible for difficult-to-treat infections in humans”. The bacterium develops resistance when there is haphazard use of antibiotics which is what makes treatment difficult.
MRSA is a contagious and hard-to-cure disease that can be caught by direct contact with an infected person or direct contact with something they have handled. MRSA causes skin infections where persons with the disease will develop boils or pimples on their skin which, if left untreated will turn into pustules and affect important organs of the body such as the lungs, and heart as well as the blood stream. Complications such as fever, low blood pressure, joint pains, severe headaches and shortness of breath many also develop and persons will require urgent medical attention. Mercer disease may result in fatalities without proper and efficient treatment.
Causes of MRSA
Staph Infections
There are some individuals that carry the staph bacteria on the skin or inside the nose but do not suffer from illness (they are colonized). However, because the bacteria are highly contagious it can be transferred to others. In most cases staph bacteria are harmless but in some cases such as weakened immune systems or old age they will cause serious illness to the individual. Staph bacteria become more dangerous if they enter the body through broken skin, but the level of damage is usually minor in healthy people.
Resistance to Antibiotics
Persons that develop a resistance to major antibiotics are prone to MRSA. This kind of resistance will develop from unnecessary or excessive use of antibiotics. This most likely happens with prescriptions for viral infections call for antibiotics as the cure; however, the antibiotics may not have been the best solution. After constant use the body develops immunity to the effects of these drugs.
Antibiotics are also found in livestock and passed on to humans when their feedlots contaminate municipal water systems, streams and groundwater.
Antibiotics may also increase the resistant bacteria present in the body indirectly. When antibiotics are used as treatment they do not eradicate all the germs present, these germs continue to live in the body and develop immunity to future courses of antibiotic treatment. The germs eventually begin to mutate creating more germs that are resistant.
Weak Immune System
Persons that are sick, or weakened from age, will be more vulnerable to mercer disease especially those that are hospitalized, this is more so in patients that have an open wound whether from surgery or otherwise. MRSA can survive for long periods on objects or surfaces such as door handles, sinks, floors and cleaning equipment as such individual most practice proper hygiene to avoid infection.
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