OutdoorBuddy

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is a bacterium that causes infections in different parts of the human body. Because it’s hard to treat, MRSA is sometimes called a “Super Bug.”

“MRSA is also showing up in healthy people who have not been living in the hospital. This type, community-associated MRSA, is called CA-MRSA. According to a CDC Report, issued in 2007, 14% of people with MRSA infections had CA-MRSA. Studies have shown that rates of CA-MRSA infections are growing fast. One study of children in south Texas found that cases of CA-MRSA had a 14-fold increase between 1999 and 2001.

“CA-MRSA skin infections are identified among certain populations that share close quarters or experience more skin-to-skin contact. Examples are team athletes, military recruits, and prisoners. However, more and more CA-MRSA infections are being seen in the general community as well, especially in certain geographic regions.

“It is also infecting much younger people. In a study of Minnesotans published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, the average age of people with MRSA in a hospital or health care facility was 68. But the average age of a person with CA-MRSA was only 23.

These so-called “Super Bugs” [MRSA] are causing far more serious illnesses, are much harder to treat, and are being found in many community settings such as hospitals, locker rooms, nursing homes, and schools.

A Utah-based Laboratory has developed and manufacturers a product, Silver Soft [Registered Trademark] For Skin, which has been shown to be effective against MRSA. Silver Soft is dispensed as a soft, white foam. The active ingredient in Silver Soft is chelated [key-lay-ted] silver. The chelation technology was awarded a U.S. Patent in December 2007. Independent testing, completed in December 2008, was conducted at a local university microbiology laboratory. Testing confirmed the chelated silver complex achieved a five-log reduction [99.9994] of the MRSA bacteria in 3 minutes.

“Until recently, we rarely thought of it as a problem among healthy people in the community” said Dr. Rachel Gorwitz of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A CDC study found that between 10 and 20 percent of cases involving the most common strain of MRSA were able to evade the antibiotics typically used to treat them.” [See The Associated Press: "Study: Staph germs harder to treat," Marilynn Marchione; October 28, 2008].

“They’re becoming more resistant and they’re coming into institutional settings where they swap gene components with other bacteria and grow even more dangerous said Dr. Keith Klugman, an infections disease expert at Emory University. It’s [potentially] really a major epidemic.”

Symptoms of MRSA depend on where you’re infected and staph can usually be treated with antibiotics. However, over time, some strains of staph - like MRSA - have become resistant to the antibiotics that once destroyed it. First discovered in 1961, MRSA is now resistant to methicillin, amoxicillin, penicillin, oxacillin, and many other antibiotics. And, because MRSA is constantly adapting, scientists have a hard time keeping up.