Read moreMRSA and me: Treating MRSA meant isolation, painstaking disinfection
MRSA signs and symptomsMost staph skin infections, including MRSA, appear as a bump or infected area on the skin that may be:• Red• Swollen• Painful• Warm to the touch• Full of pus or other drainage• Accompanied by a feverSource: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
It was just a pedicure. But it could’ve killed Kim Ealy.
“Whoever thought you could potentially lose your life having a pedicure?” asks Ealy, 44, a Chattanooga woman who contracted methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from contaminated equipment used during the procedure. “The nail tech cut me and used an implement that had not been sterilized.”
MRSA is a bacteria that is resistant to many antibiotics, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Out in the real world, most MRSA involves skin infections, but in medical facilities — where MRSA is often contracted — it can cause life-threatening bloodstream infections, pneumonia and surgical site infections.