I probably picked up MRSA in the hospital during a protracted stay following alarming, but successful surgery. At first, it was just wierd, but I was able to punch it down with some fairly heavy duty meds Rx'd by my doc.

Then my son came down with a nasty infection, that hit him fast and hard. He wound up in the hospital on IV antibiotics.

But when my wife got a nasty infection on her leg, someone finally thought to send a sample off for evaluation. The strain of MRSA was id'd and the state board of health's infectious disease guy had a long chat with my GP. At the end of the day, everyone in my family went on oral meds, and had to take a shower twice a day with an antibacterial Rx soap and put ucky goo in our noses. I think this went on for two weeks. And it worked. The meds set us back $600, and the only lasting damage is a silver dollar sized scar on my wife's leg.

Unfortunately, MRSA is seeping into the populace at large, and many cases occur in people who haven't been in or near a hospital, so it doesn't spring to mind as readily as it would post-hospitalization. This means it gets treated later, and is thus harder to treat, and has more opportunity to spread.

We came out ok, but no mistake, this is nasty stuff, and some people fair much worse than we did.