Treatment
According to U.S.A ‘s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “The first-line treatment for mild abscesses is incision and drainage. If antibiotic treatment is clinically indicated, it should be guided by the susceptibility profile of the organism."
Fortunately for mankind, most MRSA still can be managed by a few but specific antibiotics some of which are mentioned below-
- Vancomycin [Vancocin] is still used in the treatment of MRSA.
- Other antibiotics, such as linezolid [Zyvox], are effective against MRSA when used in combination with vancomycin.
- Some strains of CA-MRSA can be treated using trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim), doxycycline, and clindamycin. (There are reports that clindamycin- resistance is on the increase).
- In the case of MRSA carriers, mupirocin antibiotic cream can destroy colonies of MRSA from mucous membranes especially of those who carry it in their nose.
- Both HA-MRSA and CA-MRSA (serious type, like after a bout of pneumonia) can be treated with the antibiotic vancomycin alone or in combination with other antibiotics. The drugs are administered intra-venously (IV). Although vancomycin is life-saving, there are reports that strains of MRSA that have developed resistance to vancomycin (VRSA) and these could well be the next “monster bugs”
- The common type of CA-MRSA can be treated on an outpatient mode with the administration of specific oral antibiotics or by topical antibiotics.
The best way to treat MRSA infection is to culture the organism extracted from a patient’s tissue in a microbiology lab and to specifically determine which antibiotic(s) can be used to kill the MRSA. Such a test is useful because resistance to the antibiotics can develop or change quickly and the treatment needs to change accordingly too.
Very often patients stop the antibiotics after a few doses of the medicine in the assumption that they are now cured of the ‘bug’. They couldn’t be more wrong as MRSA may still be viable in them leading to a recurrence of the infection.
Another important fact is that the surviving bacteria could be exposed to the remaining low dose of antibiotics in the person’s body gaining it enough time to develop antibiotic resistance in the bacteria.
Therefore patients are advised to complete their course of anti- biotics as prescribed by their doctor.
MRSA strains are currently resistant to the following antibiotics-
- penicillin,
- oxacillin,
- amoxicillin (Amoxil, Dispermox, Trimox).
Besides the above mentioned Antibiotics HA-MRSA are resistant to tetracycline, erythromycin, clindamycin.
It is a matter of concern that very few drugs are potent against bacteria as the latter mutate at a rate that is faster than the speed at which drugs targeting them are produced.
In a few cases of MRSA-infected persons antibiotics are never used, instead the health care staff may just drain an abscess caused by the MRSA and this often brings relief.
