Question: your research sais that 10 in 30 people have 'staph' however you also said it only really effect very young or old and rarely the healthy so if tyou have such a small audiance to cure and the virus is rarely harmful is there any other ways it effect us

Jim Caryl answered on 17 Jun 2011:

Hi there,

Well, what that means is that roughly 33% of people carry the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria in their noses (and the back of your throat) at all times, i.e. they are a natural part of your body’s microbial flora (what we call the natural populations of bacteria on the body). However, everyone can be ‘transiently’ colonised by S. aureus, especially if they are a patient, or working within, a hospital or residential care centre – almost 99% of people in a hospital have some colonisation by S. aureus (not always antibiotic resistant).

Permanent or transient colonisation by S. aureus is not usually a problem for most healthy people, even if it is a strain that is resistant to antibiotics. However, if you are going for a serious operation, or are undergoing treatment for cancer, or have HIV, you would need to be screened to ensure that you are not colonised by bacteria such as MRSA, and if you are, you will need to be isolated from other patients and be treated for those bacteria. We work on some of those treatments in my lab.

It’s worth pointing out that on the whole, a superbug bacteria (what we call antibiotic resistant bacteria) isn’t actually any better at starting an infection that a bacteria that isn’t resistant to antibiotics, certainly in a healthy person; though there are always a few exceptions with some really nasty strains, but they are rare. The issue is when the person is ill, and their bodies need help fighting the infection, we need the bacteria causing the infection to be killed (or prevented from growing) by the antibiotics.