It may sound like something from the popular TV series “CSI”, but a spokesperson from King Edward VII Memorial Hospital stressed that MRSA is from a strain of everyday bacteria.

Commonly called “staph”, staphylococcus aureus, is found on the skin. It poses no great health risk on the skin but can pre-set a problem if it enters the body. It is the bacterium most responsible for food poisoning, but also can cause skin eruptions like boils or pimples and in severe cases, pneumonia. MRSA is a type of staph that is not killed by the antibiotic methicillin (MRSA — methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus) or other commonly used antibiotics including penicillin, oxacillin, amoxicillin. Stronger antibiotics are used to fight MRSA infections.

According the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, about a quarter of Americans have the staph bacterium, but only about one percent carry MRSA. Most people who carry staph or MRSA are not sick and develop no illness, but those with weakened immune systems are at risk.

MRSA is transmitted person-to-person by direct contact or if in the sinuses by droplet infection, in the same way the common cold spreads. Good personal hygiene and frequent hand washing help prevent the bacteria spreading.

Testing for MRSA is available locally at KEMH.

Anna Lowry, head of communications for the Bermuda Hospitals Board, said: “We can find out if and where staphylococcus aureus is located on a patient by taking various samples, sending them to the laboratory and growing the organism. Tests done on any staphylococcus aureus <$>grown from such specimens can then decide how sensitive the organisms is to antibiotics and if it is a methicillin resistant (MRSA) organism. These tests usually take two to three days.”