How life threatning is MRSA?

My husband has been diagnosed with MRSA. He keeps getting these boils that the drs. have to lance and then put him on IV antibiotics.

It is important to know if he has "community aquired" MRSA or "hospital aquired" MRSA, as it affects the antibiotic susceptibility pattern... I'm going to assume it was CA-MRSA.

The big danger of MRSA lies in potential bacterial infection of the blood (bacteremia) which can lead to sepsis, septic shock, and potentially death. If your husband is on appropriate IV antibiotic therapy, and is being followed by a doctor (preferably an Infectious Disease specialist) then he is in good hands and will likely come through this in good health.

However, it would be worth asking your husband's doctors about nasal and skin decolonization for everyone who lives in your household. As mentioned, the bacteria can be carried harmlessly by some people, in their nose or on their skin. If your husband is susceptible to these recurrent boils, then after he stops antibiotics he could be reinfected by a colonized family member. The effectiveness of decolonization is currently a subject of some disagreement among physicians, so your husband's doctor may or may not be interested in having your household go through a decolonization protocol.

There is more information at the website provided below.

Its just a stubborn staph infection(doesn't respond to the regular antibiotics) It only is dangerous to people who have other debilitating diseases and would have difficulty fighting off any infection. MRSA is in the nose of all people and is completely harmless if it stays in the nose,but like all good staph infections they always go where they are not wanted. Hand washing,hand washing,most important.

Usually this is not too serious. Although this is a new thing to alot of people. My doctor said you used to only see this in nursing homes and with professional sports players. Now it is hitting the communitys everywhere. I have had MRSA and so has pretty much everyone in my family. We were given an oral antibiotic and it went away. But, I do know that the doctor said that if it doesn't improve. It could get very dangerous just because it is a staph infection and the infection itself could spread to other parts of the body or even into your blood stream. Even alot of physicans don't have a lot of answers because this is all new to them as well. I found alot of sites on the internet to be helpful for general knowledge of it and an explanation of it all.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) is not found in the nose of all people! It was once more common in health care settings but has found its way into the community. It can colonize the nares without causing infection, and this is a common screening method to isolate inpatients to prevent spreading to other patients. Depending on where a MRSA infection occurs, the more serious and difficult the infection is to cure. Patients that are immunocompromized are definitely more at risk for life threatening infections. osteomyelitis is infection of the bone, MRSA can be a causative agent and often presents a challenge to avoid amputation. The estimated percent of the normal population that has MRSA colonized on their skin or nares is about 30%.