It’s tiny, found nearly anywhere and can kill you under the right circumstances. And now it’s getting harder to fight.

Staph infections, caused by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, can usually be treated with antibiotics.

The bacterium is usually only a threat for people with weaker immune systems “because the bacteria produces toxins that can quickly overload the system,” said Rob Hubert, teaching lab coordinator of microbiology.

“Toxic shock syndrome is caused by the staph bacteria,” he said.

That’s starting to change, however. Recently, a new strain called Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has emerged.

As the name suggests, this bacteria is more resistant to the antibiotics used to treat them, such as methicillin and penicillin.

“For the most part, when a bacterium develops a new genetic trait, like this resistance, it’s there for good,” Hubert said.

“They can lose the genes if they aren’t being challenged, but that won’t happen anytime soon, if at all.”

MRSA is most commonly found in environments such as hospitals and nursing homes. It tends to strike older people and those with particularly weak immune systems.

“In those types of environments, there’s a lot of patients using antibiotics, so the chance for organisms to get exposed to and get tougher against antibiotics is a lot higher,” Hubert said.

When the staph infection is only localized in the skin, people can expect to develop pimples and boils, and the infected area will be inflamed and could produce pus.

If the infection is not treated promptly, it could spread to the bloodstream, and then throughout entire body.

“If it gets to your internal organs, you’re in trouble,” said Marc Shulman, staff physician with the Thielen Student Health Center.

Shulman said another factor in the development of this drug-resistant strain is the general overprescription of antibiotics.

“It’s mostly patients that feel the need to get antibiotics for simple things like colds,” he said. “They want their sickness over now, but half the time antibiotics wouldn’t help at all, since they don’t affect viruses or allergy-related effects.

“But they still get them and flood their bodies with them, which lowers resistance.”

Although MRSA is most commonly found in hospital and clinic environments, it is spreading outside of that environment.

The most important question, of course, is the best course of action to take in protecting yourself from this infection.

“We could just keep developing stronger antibiotics, but we would reach a point where the antibiotics would be more toxic to the person than the bacteria,” Hubert said.

“I think they should start developing different types of antibiotics. We just have to stay ahead of the bacteria.”

Shulman said to keep from getting a staph infection, hygiene is very important.

“It spreads from interpersonal contact or sharing items like towels or bed sheets,” he said.

“People in shared living spaces need to be washing their hands more, and be very careful about both sharing linens and covering wounds. Even a scratch from falling down could get infected.”

Although staph infections are more common in hospitals and nursing homes, they have been found “on every college campus,” Shulman said.

“We usually see a case [at the Student Health Center] once every few weeks, but it’s sporadic. We have seen multiple cases in a short time span,” he said.