MMRSA Guide
Microscopic illustration of MRSA (Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria
Reference · Is MRSA contagious? · How you get it

How do you get MRSA?

MRSA does not push through healthy skin. It needs a way in — a cut, a wound, a shaved area or a medical device — and it most often arrives from bacteria the person was already carrying. Here is every route, and who each one affects.

Written by David Roberts, editor · Updated

Checked against current CDC and IDSA guidance. Not medically reviewed. How we source this

Two things have to happen

First the bacteria have to be present, on your skin, in your nose or on something you touch. Roughly one in three people carry Staphylococcus aureus harmlessly, and a smaller share carry the resistant version. Second, they have to find a breach — broken skin or a device that crosses the skin barrier. Without the second step, exposure usually ends as colonisation, not illness.

Every route of acquisition

RouteHow it happensWho it mostly affects
Your own carriageMRSA in your nose or on your skin transferred by your hands into a cut or woundAnyone; the commonest single route
Broken skinCuts, grazes, shaving nicks, insect bites, eczema, burnsEveryone, especially in sport and manual work
Surgical woundsBacteria entering an incision during or after an operationSurgical patients, particularly implant surgery
Medical devicesDrips, central lines, urinary catheters, feeding tubes, dialysis accessHospital and dialysis patients, long-term care residents
Person-to-person contactSkin-to-skin contact with a colonised or infected personHouseholds, care work, contact sport, intimacy
Shared items and surfacesTowels, razors, bedding, gym kit and benches acting as a relayGyms, teams, prisons, barracks, shared housing
AnimalsPet and livestock carriage passing between animals and peopleFarm and veterinary workers, some pet owners

Hospital-acquired and community-acquired

For decades MRSA was a hospital problem: surgery, drips, catheters, long stays and heavy antibiotic use. Then community strains emerged that infect healthy people outside healthcare entirely, typically as boils and abscesses in younger, active people. The two groups behave differently enough that the distinction still guides treatment — see MRSA strains for the detail, and MRSA in hospitals and after surgery for what happens around an operation.

Who is most at risk

  • Anyone with a surgical wound, drip, central line, urinary catheter or feeding tube
  • Hospital inpatients, care-home residents and dialysis patients
  • People with diabetes, cancer treatment, HIV or other causes of weakened immunity
  • People who inject drugs
  • Contact-sport players, gym users and people in crowded shared living
  • Newborns in neonatal units, and older people with fragile skin — see MRSA in children and babies
  • Farm and veterinary workers — see MRSA in animals

What actually reduces your chances

  • Wash hands with soap, especially before touching a wound or dressing
  • Clean every new cut or graze and keep it covered until it has healed
  • Do not share towels, flannels, razors, bar soap or sports kit
  • Wipe shared gym equipment and put a towel between skin and benches or mats
  • Follow pre-surgery washing, screening and antiseptic instructions to the letter
  • Ask visitors and staff to clean their hands if you are in hospital with a wound or line

The full setting-by-setting version lives on the prevention hub, and the answers on how long it stays contagious are on is MRSA contagious?

Frequently asked questions

How do you get MRSA?
MRSA gets in when the bacteria reach broken skin or a medical device. Most infections come from a person's own carriage — MRSA already living in their nose or on their skin entering a cut, graze, shaved area, surgical wound, drip site or catheter. The rest come from contact with someone else's colonised skin or infected lesion, or with a contaminated shared item.
Where do you catch MRSA?
Historically hospitals, care homes and dialysis units, where devices, surgery and antibiotic use concentrate the risk. Community-acquired MRSA has changed that: gyms, contact sports, prisons, military barracks, nurseries and crowded households all see transmission, driven by skin contact and shared kit rather than by medical care.
Can you get MRSA without being in hospital?
Yes. Community-associated MRSA strains, such as USA300 in the United States, cause boils and abscesses in otherwise healthy people with no recent hospital contact. They tend to affect younger, fitter people and to present as skin infection rather than device-related infection.
Can you get MRSA from a cut?
Yes — that is the classic route. A cut, graze, shaving nick, insect bite, eczema patch or surgical incision gives MRSA a way past intact skin. Washing new wounds and keeping them covered until healed is the single most effective everyday precaution.
Can you get MRSA from carrying it in your nose?
Yes, and it is the most common way. Carriage is symptomless, but studies of Staphylococcus aureus infection repeatedly show that the strain causing someone's infection is usually the strain they were already carrying, transferred to a wound by their own hands.
Who is most at risk of getting MRSA?
People with surgical wounds, drips, catheters, dialysis or feeding tubes; hospital and care-home residents; people with diabetes, cancer treatment or weakened immunity; injecting drug users; people in contact sport or crowded shared living; and newborns in neonatal units. Age alone is a factor at both extremes of life.
Can you get MRSA from a pet?
Rarely, but it happens in both directions. Dogs, cats and horses can carry MRSA, usually after picking it up from people, and livestock-associated strains occur in pig and cattle farming. Hand washing after handling animals, and veterinary advice for a pet with a non-healing skin lesion, cover it.
How long after exposure does MRSA appear?
There is no fixed incubation period, because exposure often means becoming a carrier rather than becoming ill. When infection does follow, a skin lesion typically appears within a few days of the bacteria entering broken skin, but carriage can precede infection by weeks, months or years.
Can you avoid getting MRSA?
You cannot avoid encountering staph — a third of people carry it. What you can reduce is the chance of it getting in: wash hands, clean and cover wounds until healed, do not share towels or razors, wipe shared gym equipment, and follow pre-surgery washing and screening instructions when a hospital gives them.

Is MRSA contagious?

The short answer, contagious period and surface survival.

MRSA bacteria: what it is and how it gets into the body

The organism, resistance, and the routes it uses to enter the body.

Hospitals & surgery

Hand hygiene, chlorhexidine bathing, screening and surgical prophylaxis.

At home & family

Wound care, laundry, cleaning and shared items.

Sports & locker rooms

Skin checks, covered wounds and cleaning shared gear.

Intimacy & sexual transmission

Skin-to-skin risk and when to abstain.

Is MRSA airborne?

Contact versus droplet versus airborne, and the pneumonia exception.

Precautions & isolation

Contact precautions, gowns and gloves, visiting rules and home equivalents.

How long MRSA lives on surfaces

Survival times by material, and what actually kills it.

References
  1. CDC. MRSA: causes, how it spreads and people at increased risk (2024)
  2. NHS. MRSA — causes and how it is spread (2023)
  3. Wertheim H.F.L. et al., The Lancet Infectious Diseases. The role of nasal carriage in Staphylococcus aureus infections (2005)
  4. Kluytmans J. et al., Clinical Microbiology Reviews. Nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus: epidemiology, underlying mechanisms and associated risks (1997)
  5. CDC. Healthcare-associated infections: central line and surgical site infection prevention (2024)
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