Antibiotics are used to treat staph infections. But there's been a gradual change in how well these antibiotics work. While most staph infections used to be treatable with penicillin, that changed in the 1980s and stronger antibiotics are now used.
In about 50% of cases, however, resistance is seen to even these stronger antibiotics. These cases are not just happening in hospitals -- as once was true -- but now are occurring in the general community. That's been a problem. Many doctors are accustomed to using certain antibiotics, but those then fail because of antibiotic resistance. There are several more potent antibiotics now, but doctors need to know when to use them.
There's another treatment sometimes used with staph infections. If the infection goes so deep that it involves muscles or fibers that enclose muscles, it needs to be surgically cleaned.
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