Community Acquired Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus - Article Example

Community acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or al affiliation Community acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) was first recognized in 1960. The disease takes mostly the form of skin and soft tissue infections. In many parts of the world, it is the most common nosocomial bacterial pathogen. In the past, CA-MRSA infections occurred in patients who frequently had contact with health care or in specific group of patients such as intravenous drug users. Currently, CA-MRSA also affects healthy people that have no risk factors for the disease.

The etiology of CA-MRSA infections includes presentation of small series of soft tissue infections, pneumonia or bacteremia in both adult and pediatric patients. Strains of CA-MRSA produces symptoms that range from subtle to life threatening. The most common lesions were abscesses and cellulitis which presented as single lesions involving extremities. Patients with abscesses may have no fever or leukocytosis. Abscesses are mostly accompanied by central necrosis and surrounding cellulitis. Multiple boils are usually characteristics and occur in outbreaks but is a less frequent presentation of CA--MRSA.

In addition, scalded skin syndrome and impendigo are usually uncommon. Myositis and pyositis are also rare infections that involve pelvis or lower extremities. Some patients may also have associated bacteremia and septic shock (Stryjewski & Chambers, 2008) There is an increasing rate of drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus that has led to study of potential medicinal herbs for treatment. Some plants extracts have antimicrobial activity and can be great significance in therapeutic treatment. Strains of Staphylococcus aureus were vulnerable to extracts of Punica granatum and Tabebuia avellanedae, which are Brazillian traditional medicinal herbs.

Two naphthoquinones isolated from T. avellanedae and ellagitannins isolated from P. granatum were mixed and they exhibited antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus. These natural occurring naphthoquinones showed a lower minimum inhibitory concentrations than semi-synthetic furanonaphthoquinones (Machado, et al., 2003). Good bioactivity is determined by a low minimum inhibitory concentration. Turnera ulmifolia a small annual herb found in north and northeast Brazillian regions, known for its medicinal value as an anti-inflammatory was evaluated.

An ethanol extract of T. ulmifolia L. and chlorpromazine were tested for their microbial activity alone or in combination with aminoglycosides against MRSA activity. The results that were obtained after drug susceptibility testing by determining the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). The addition of etanolic extraction of Turnera ulmifolia produced a drastic reduction in (MIC) for gentamicin and kanamycin in the strain of Staphylococcus aureus (Coutinho, Costa, Lima, Falcao-Silva, & Siqueira, 2009).

A study by Sekee, Maneerat, Cushnie, & De-eknamkul (2011) in a healthcare centre in Beijing on 25 patients that wdiagnosed with AC-MRSA showed that Blumea balsamifera can be successfully be used to treat Staphylococcus aureus. The essential oil , hexane, dichloromethane and methanol extracts were administered to the patients. Moreover, the herb extracts did not pose any side effects on the patients. In this regard, natural herbs can be more effective in developing new strategies to treat AC-MRSA References Coutinho, H.

, Costa, J., Lima, E., Falcao-Silva, V. S., & Siqueira, J. P. (2009). Herbal therapy associated with antibiotic therapy: potentiation of the antibiotic activity against methicillin - resistant Staphylococcus aureus by Turnera ulmifolia. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 9(13), 1-4. Machado, T. B., Pinto, A. V., Pinto, M. F., Leal, I. C., Silva, M. G., Amaral, A. C., . . . Netto-dosSantos, K. R. (2003). In vitro activity of Brazilian medicinal plants, naturally occuring naphthoquinones and their analogues, against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Internatonal Journal of Microbial Agents, 21(3), 279-284. Sekee, U., Maneerat, S., Cushnie, T., & De-eknamkul, W. (2011). Antimicrobial activity of Blumea balsamifera (Lin.) extracts and essential oil. Natural Product Research, 19, 1849-1856. Stryjewski, M. E., & Chambers, H. F. (2008). Skin and Sot Tissue Infections Caused by Community Acquired Methicilli-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Clinical Infections Diseases, 46(Supplement 5), S368-S377.