MRSA: Understand your risk and how to prevent infection - Mayo Clinic

MRSA — or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — has been a problem in hospital and health care settings for years. But this highly drug-resistant bacterium has recently gained increased media attention. The attention is in part because of an October 2007 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report on MRSA. MRSA has also played a role in several deaths among otherwise healthy school-age athletes. Are such infections on the rise? What are the real risks of MRSA infection for you or your child? And what can you do to protect against MRSA infection? James Steckelberg, M.D., an infectious disease specialist at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., answers these and other common questions about MRSA....