Most MRSA infections occur in people who have been in hospitals or other health care settings, such as nursing homes and dialysis centers. When it occurs in these settings, it's known as health care-associated MRSA (HA-MRSA).
HA-MRSA infections typically are associated with invasive procedures or devices, such as surgeries, intravenous tubing or artificial joints.
Another type of MRSA infection has occurred in the wider community — among healthy people. This form, community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA), often begins as a painful skin boil. It's spread by skin-to-skin contact. At-risk populations include groups such as high school wrestlers, child care workers and people who live in crowded conditions.
Symptoms
generally start as small red bumps that resemble pimples, boils or spider bites. These can quickly turn into deep, painful abscesses that require surgical draining. Sometimes the bacteria remain confined to the skin. But they can also burrow deep into the body, causing potentially life-threatening infections in bones, joints, surgical wounds, the bloodstream, heart valves and lungs.
Symptoms of a more serious staph infection may include:
chest pain
chills
cough
fatigue
fever
general ill feeling (malaise)
headache
muscle aches
rash
shortness of breath
How MRSA infection transmitted
MRSA transmission occurs between individuals through direct skin-to-skin contact or contact with shared items or surfaces that have come into contact with someone else's infection (such as towels or used bandages).
Not everyone who has MRSA will actually develop an infection. This is known as colonization. "Colonization" means that a person is carrying a specific type of bacteria, but does not have any signs or symptoms of illness that this particular bacteria type can cause. A person colonized with MRSA may also be called a MRSA "carrier."
It is estimated that up to 7 percent of people in hospitals and up to 2 percent of people in the community are colonized with MRSA, either on the skin or within their nose (the two most common areas). Although they do not have any signs or symptoms of MRSA, they can still infect others.
Incubation period
After a person has become infected with MRSA, it takes about 1 to 10 days on average for symptoms to appear. This period between MRSA transmission and the beginning of MRSA symptoms is called the "MRSA incubation period."
