The Emergence of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)

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Human civilizations have existed for thousands of years but with the existence of these civilizations diseases were right there with them. Even before great civilizations emerged, such as the Greeks and Romans, diseases have been around preying on animals and villages. When a civilization emerges it means that people have come together and built a society. These societies allow for diseases to spread easily because of unsanitary conditions and people being in close contact with each other on a normal basis. But in the past few decades science has allowed us to find cures or treatments for most diseases out there, yet there are still diseases that everyone knows about going around causing the deaths of thousands of people every year. This is because most of these diseases have emerged from past diseases that have been cured or we do not have the technology to treat them yet. New diseases emerge every year from old diseases such as the flu which is why we are constantly making a new flu vaccine yearly. The way these diseases emerge is usually where a small portion of the microbe causing it is immune to whatever treatment is used to destroy it. These microbes will then multiply themselves and eventually cause a new strain of disease that needs a new treatment method.
For example, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a strain of bacteria that mutated from the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus. This specific strain came about by natural selection against Methicillin, as its name suggests. The strain must have already previously existed before patients were treated with Methicillin and when they were the Methicillin killed off all of the bacteria besides the MRSA ones allowing them to spread while the host felt like the...

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... Mark. Robinson, Ashley. Randle, Gaynor. “The evolutionary history of methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 16 April 2002: 1. Web. 06 December 2013.
Gilbert, Mark. MacDonald, Judy. Gregson, Dan. “Outbreak in Alberta of community-acquired
(USA300) methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in people with a history of drug use, homelessness or incarceration.” CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal 18 July 2006: 149-154. Print.
“Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).” NIAID. 08 March 2008. Web. 06
December 2013. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/
Pray, Leslie. “Antibiotic Resistance, Mutation Rates and MRSA.” Scitable. 2008. Web. 06
December 2013.
Stoppler, Melissa. “Staph Infection.” MedicineNet. 20 April 2012. Web. 06 December 2013.

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