What is the Difference Between Staph and MRSA?

Jeff Boyd, PhD, assistant professor of Biochemistry and Microbiology at Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, explains the difference between Staphylococcus aureus and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“So methicillin[-resistant] Staph aureus is different than more commonly found Staphylococcus aureus in that it is resistant to an antibiotic called methicillin. Typically, it is resistant to all beta lactam antibiotics.

If you go into a clinic, a physician, if they treated you with a beta lactam antibiotic, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus would be able to resist the treatment, it would be able to survive in the presence of that antibiotic.”