Image via WikipediaIn spite of MRSA’s resistance to many antibiotics, most of its strains can still be treated with certain antibiotics, usually given as intravenous medicine. Depending on the nature of MRSA, one of the four commonly used MRSA drug treatments can be of help.For patients colonised with MRSA, a nasal treatment and a skin wash can be done to prevent infection. Patients may also use a special antibiotic called mupirocin onto their skin or the inside of nose as a preventive MRSA drug treatment. This helps to kill MRSA while preventing the spread of bacteria either to other areas on the patient's body or to other people. However, some strains of MRSA are resistant to mupirocin.
For patients who are already infected by MRSA, antibiotics are often necessary. If infections are caused by normal strains of Staphylococcus aureus, flucloxacillin can be used for the treatment of the infection. But for infections caused by Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, flucloxacillin will not be able to cure the infection. MRSA are also resistant to other types of antibiotics such as erythromycin and ciprofloxacin.
For MRSA infections, certain antibiotics such as vancomycin and teicoplanin can be used to treat the disease. Either or both of these drugs can be administered by infusion or injection to hospitalised patients. If injected into muscles, vancomycin is painful and so it is not used.
When MRSA bacteria infect or is present in the bloodstream, drugs such as Daptomycin, Vancomycin or Linezolid should be used for treatment.
For common skin infections often caused by community-acquired MRSA, doctors may incise and drain the wound and apply antibiotics such as bactrim. For infected wounds, other forms of remedy such as special honey, silver bandages, garlic preparations and tea tree oil can be applied to hasten recovery.
