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MRSA

Question
Is it true that an MRSA encapsulation would most likely be located in the weakest part of one's body? My husband had a back injury back in 2007. In 2009 he got MRSA, probably from a cut on the leg. The leg got infected and soon after he developed lots of inflammation and fever and pain in the back. He was admitted to the hospital and they discovered MRSA in his blood cultures. Nothing seemed to work. Antibiotics including Vancomycin would not kill the bacteria. The neurologist finally found the encapsulation in the back where his 2007 back injury was. They performed emergency surgery to remove the encapsulated MRSA and then the antibiotics started to work. He recovered but is still undergoing surgeries to fix the back injury. I always asked why did the MRSA encapsulate at the back and one doctor told me it was because it found the weakest part of his body. Is that true? Thanks
Answer
Dear questioner,
this is a forum about Cystic fibrosis (CF). From your question we cannot draw the conclusion that your question concerns a patient suffering from CF. We, as the ECORN-CF expert team, are specialized in topics related to CF, of course we often get questions about MRSA and CF (colonization, eradication etc). If you are interested in the topic “MRSA and CF”, please go to the Central English Archive of the ECORN-CF website and open “Topics” and then “MRSA”.
The case you report seems to be the classical way of wound infection MRSA can also cause (different from the problems it causes in CF). In general it can be said, that if a patient gets ill due to a certain germ (like MRSA for example) is always an interplay between virulence of the germ and effectiveness of the defensive immune system of the body. If there is a place in the body, where those defense mechanisms do not function properly anymore (due to impaired circulation, blood flow, infection), or there is a general immunosuppression of the body, the germ tends to hole up in such an area to avoid being killed by the immune system.
Hope this helps,
Best regards,
Dr. Daniela d’Alquen (coordinator of the Central English Archive of ECORN-CF)
07.07.2014