Generally starts as small red bumps that resemble pimples, boils or spider bites.

Generally starts as small red bumps that resemble pimples, boils or spider bites.

They can quickly turn into deep, painful abscesses that require surgical draining.

Sometimes the bacteria remain confined to the skin. They also can burrow deep into the body, causing potentially life-threatening infections in bones, joints, surgical wounds, bloodstream, heart valves and lungs.

Treatment:

Both hospital- and community-associated strains of MRSA still respond to certain medications.

In hospitals and care facilities, doctors generally rely on vancomycin and other antibiotics that have proved effective against particular strains.

Although vancomycin saves lives, the staph may grow resistant. Some hospitals are already seeing outbreaks of vancomycin-resistant MRSA.

To help reduce the threat, doctors may drain an abscess caused by MRSA rather than treat the infection with drugs.

Source: Mayo Clinic