It is a common cause of hospital-acquired infections. Anyone can get MRSA, but it is found most often in hospitalized patients. MRSA infections can cause a broad range of symptoms depending on the part of the body that is infected. These may include surgical wounds, burns, catheter sites, eye, skin and blood.
Infection often results in redness, swelling and tenderness at the site of infection.
Sometimes, people may carry MRSA without having any symptoms. The staph bacteria is generally spread through direct contact with the hands of a health care worker or patient who is infected or carrying the organism. Some people can carry MRSA for days to many months, even after their infection has been treated. MRSA infections can be diagnosed when a doctor obtains a sample or specimen from the site of infection and submits it to a laboratory. Although MRSA cannot be effectively treated with antibiotics such as methicillin, nafcillin, cephalosporin or penicillin, it can usually ben treated with an antibiotic called vancomycin.