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Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA |
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Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of a human neutrophil ingesting MRSA. |
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In the 1940s, medical treatment for S. aureus infections became routine and successful with the discovery and introduction of antibiotic medicine, such as penicillin.
From that point on, however, use of antibiotics—including misuse and overuse—has aided natural bacterial evolution by helping the microbes become resistant to drugs designed to help fight these infections.
In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, S. aureus developed resistance to penicillin. Methicillin, a form of penicillin, was introduced to counter the increasing problem of penicillin-resistant S. aureus. Methicillin was one of most common types of antibiotics used to treat S. aureus infections; but, in 1961, British scientists identified the first strains of S. aureus bacteria that resisted methicillin. This was the so-called birth of MRSA.
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Courtesy: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) |
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License: Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Modification: colors were changed; original file here (Flickr).
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NIAID
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