MRSA has emerged as a serious infectious disease, with the first case of methicillin-resistant S. aureus being detected in 1961.
Why are medical professionals so concerned when antibiotics exist that can kill MRSA? MRSA can transfer methicillin-resistance to other bacteria.
Patients are not treated with correct antibiotics rapidly enough to prevent serious illness.
MRSA could acquire additional antibiotic resistance genes from other bacteria to become a "super bug."
All of the above.
<em>Staphylococcus aureus</em> is one of the most frequent pathogens causing hospital and community infections. <em>S. aureus</em> can become very easy methicillin resistant (called MRSA isolates) and others beta-lactam antibiotics (are the ones widely used to treat infections) and usually can be resistant to other class of antibiotics, become a very strong bacteria making treatment options very limited. MRSA isolates can rapidly transfer the methicillin resistance to other species of S<em>taphylococcus</em> and some other bacteria. Also <em>S. aureus</em> can acquire other antibiotic resistant genes making a deadly bacterium for its strong resistance. It is in search how the bacterium acquire this antibiotics resistance ( and other virulence factors genes) and the mechanism involve to develop new drugs to treat MRSA infections with the hope that can´t develop resistance to this new drugs.
