Good day Dr, Joshua, im a 46 year old male , who was recently dignosed with MRSA , this comes as a shock to me in Sept , I had a eye infection and at the end of the Eye infection hard a large boil on my left leg the Dr. at the tme said it was a spider bight and prescibed anitbodicts and it went away , it left a mark on my leg about the size of quarter , after that i had no new problems then over the Thanksgiving holiday i had 5 of the infections show up on my leg, torso and buttocks . I agian went to the Dr. and after seeing a pa who gave me a mild anitibodics , i went back 2 days later and saw a real Dr. and he took a culture and sent it to the lab and then they told me i had MRSA , they prescibed minocycline , ive been taking this stuff for about 5 days and its just killing me i have no energy i sleep 12 to 14 hours a day , I have to return to work tommrow , and i cant be taking this stuff , I am a commercial truck driver and this stuff makes me tired and dizzy and throws off my virtago , ive been doing my own research on the MRSA thing and was wondering what you think of these other rememdys , In the UK they have come up with a form of Garlac called Allicin , there test show that this wipes out the super bugs , also there is a product called silver solution , im wondering if these are just snake oil , or do these things really work ,my Dr , has set me up to see an ID Dr. in a few weeks , just thought i would bend your ear and see what you thought ,

Thank You for your time
Robb L

Doctor Sinuhe Answers:

Thanks for your question. MRSA is by no means a “superbug”. It is just a bacteria, which many healthy people, actually up to 30% of the population, carry in them, most often in the nose. Sometimes it causes an infection, sometimes not. All the hassle about is is mainly due to the fact that - as the name MRSA implies - it is Resistant to the antibiotics (betalactame penicillins) which usually are used against this bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus). This, however, does not mean there are no options for treatment, quite on the contrary. Therefore, you don’t need to try to find some terribly “strong” or strange medication for it. It may, on the other hand, be difficult to decide who to treat, since there are so many healthy carriers of MRSA, it may be cultured from a wound without actual need to treat it (depends on many things, your overall health as well as if MRSA is considered to the infection) - and it may be very challenging to eradicate it completely at least before the wound heals.

MRSA deserves special attention as it may and does cause infections in hospitals, especially in operation wounds, in which case it requires antibiotic treatment, usually by vancomycin, which often is reserved for difficult situations. Vancomycin, on the other hand is not a good choice for eradicating MRSA. Minocycline may be, but the treatment needs to be individualized according to culture and sensitivity testing.

I’m glad to hear you have an appointment with a specialist who will be able to answer all your questions - including if MRSA actually did cause your infections and if it need s to be eradicated and how.

Dr Sinuhe.