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MRSA Education Free Resources

We are happy to provide these free resources developed to help you drive awareness, prevention, and education of MRSA skin infections within your facility.

Protect your team from MRSA
Rules for preventing MRSA skin infections for athletes. (8.5" x 14")

MRSA. Is it really a Superbug?
A quick glimpse at facts, identifying, and preventing MRSA. (8.5" x 14")

What is MRSA?
A handout providng a closer look at what MRSA is. (8.5" x 11")

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Understanding Staph Infections
Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as "staph," is a bacterium that can live on the skin and inside the nose of some healthy people. These people are said to be "colonized" or carriers, but they are not considered to be ill with an infection. If a colonized person gets a cut on his or her skin, the bacteria can cause skin and soft tissue infections, such as cellulitis, abscesses, impetigo, folliculitis, and furunculosis. People who are not colonized but have a cut or scrape exposed to staph can also become infected.

Understanding MRSA and CA-MRSA
Excessive use of penicillin antibiotics over the years has led to the development of stronger strains of bacteria that are no longer killed by penicillin-type antibiotics. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a strain of staph bacteria resistant to penicillin and standard penicillin-related antibiotics. MRSA causes the same types of infections that ordinary staph causes. Though MRSA was previously known for being an infection found only in ill people in hospitals, it is now showing up in the general, healthy population. This type of staph infection, known as community-acquired or community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA), can be carried by healthy adults and children who do not have any symptoms. These carriers can get a skin or soft tissue infection with CA-MRSA, or non-carriers might get infected from exposure to staph from another person. These people, if they develop a skin or soft tissue infection, will need to be treated with an antibiotic other than a standard penicillin antibiotic

Signs and Symptoms of MRSA
It is important to note that it is rare for any staph infection to become life threatening in a healthy person. While resistant to penicillin and penicillin-related antibiotics, most CA-MRSA infection treatment successfully utilizes common alternative antibiotics, such as trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, clindamycin, tetracycline, and few others. If your doctor prescribes antibiotics, be sure to take the full course of treatment.

What are some symptoms of a staph skin infection?

• Red bump that may be pus filled (sometimes mistaken for a spider bite)
• Warmth
• Pain
• Swollen, red, tender skin lesions

If your doctor diagnoses you with a staph infection and you continue to experience these symptoms for more than a couple days, the infection may be a CA-MRSA infection. Signs that you may have a CA-MRSA infection include having the above symptoms coupled with:

• Little to no improvement with antibiotics after 2–3 days
• Rapid spread of the infection
• A previous infection with CA-MRSA

Because CA-MRSA can be passed to others, it is important to follow these prevention tips:

• As a general rule, always maintain good hand-washing habits. This means washing with an antibacterial soap for at least 20 seconds while rubbing your hands together.
• Do not squeeze or attempt to drain any sore.
• Keep any wound covered and clean until it has fully healed.
• Avoid contact with others' wounds or bandages.
• Do not share personal items such as towels, razors, athletic equipment, sheets, clothes, etc.
• If you or a household member has a wound, wash your laundry in hot, soapy water, with bleach if possible, and dry these items in a hot dryer.

If you're a doctor or health care professional, click here for more information.

To learn more about some of the conditions related to staph infection and potential CA-MRSA infection, click any of the images below.

Loren Miller, MD, MPH
Infectious Disease Editor
Associate Professor of Medicine
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

Folliculitis Folliculitis is a skin condition caused by an inflammation of one or more hair follicles in a limited area. It typically occurs in areas of irritation, such as sites of shaving, skin friction, or rubbing from…

Boils (Furunculosis) Boils (furuncles) are painful pus-filled bumps on the skin resulting from the deep infection of a hair follicle. The infection is usually caused by a type of bacteria called Staphylococcus aureus…

Impetigo Impetigo is a common and contagious bacterial skin infection that is usually a minor problem, but sometimes complications may occur that require treatment. Complications related to impetigo can include deeper…

Cellulitis Cellulitis is an infection of the deeper skin tissue, which is most often caused by the bacteria Streptococcus or Staphylococcus. These bacteria are able to invade the skin through small…

Abscess An abscess is a infection characterized by a collection of pus underneath a portion of the skin. Bacteria commonly causing abscesses are Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus. These bacteria enter the…