How can you tell mrsa from a regular staph infection?

Culture: A sample needs to be sent to a lab for testing to see which antibiotics successfully kill the bacteria. Mrsa means methicillin resistant staph aureus, methicillin is an antibiotic in the same class as penicillin. If methicillin doesn't work to kill the staph- it is labeled mrsa.

Culture: Mrsa is just a staph aureus that has a new gene that renders it resistant to beta-lactam antibiotics; for the most part, it will present the exact same as a "regular" staph infection, and will respond to other antibiotics the same as non-mrsa. It is difficult to call one regular because in most of the us, about 50% of all staph aureus is now mrsa. Only way to tell for sure is lab culture.