Answer
The physician can tell Andrea that MRSA is a strain of infectious bacteria which is resistant to most antibiotics, but not to vancomycin, the antibiotic which she is prescribing. She can advise her that MRSA is derived from a bacterial strain which was resistant to weaker antibiotics such as penicillin, and that this resistance was passed on to bacterial offspring, which then outnumber and eventually replace the vulnerable bacterial strains. By relaying this information, she can convey to Andrea the importance of locating where Andrea was when she contracted the infection.
Work Step by Step
1. The physician will want to minimize the possibility of further MRSA infections going forward.
2. She will thus want Andrea to understand the importance of knowing her whereabouts at the time she was infected with MRSA.
3. If the infection site is known, then the source of infection can be isolated and eliminated.
4. By explaining to Andrea what MRSA is, how it developed, the potential for it to cause further harm, and the treatments available for it (such as the one she is being administered), the patient may spur Andrea into narrowing down her location at the time infection occurred.
5. Andrea knows firsthand how awful an MRSA infection is, and with greater understanding of the bacteria and how it can be treated, she will hopefully be more determined to clearly relay what she knows about where the infection occurred.
