For Release: Thursday, August 10, 2006 

PRECAUTIONS URGED TO PREVENT SPORTS-RELATED MRSA SKIN INFECTIONS

As area schools open pre-season training camps for fall sports, the Allegheny County Health Department is urging coaches, trainers and athletes to take precautions designed to prevent sports-related MRSA infections that are resistant to treatment with ordinary antibiotics.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA infections, once seen primarily in hospital settings among older and sicker patients, have become increasingly common in recent years in community settings among healthy adults and children, including athletes who are in close contact with one another and share athletic equipment and locker room facilities.

Anywhere from 20% to 50% of the general population may have staph bacteria present in or on their body without causing illness, and some proportion of these staph are antibiotic-resistant.  Any staph can penetrate the skin and cause infection, which may result in redness, warmth, pimples or boils, sometimes with or without pus. 

MRSA infections are a problem when they are incorrectly diagnosed and ineffectively treated with the antibiotics typically prescribed for staph infections. Until a correct diagnosis is made and effective antibiotics are used, these MRSA infections may progress and spread to other body sites and cause more serious illness.

Twenty-seven cases of community-acquired MRSA infections have been reported to the Health Department since the infections became reportable by pediatricians in January.  Eighty percent of the cases were 18 or younger, with an average of 16 years of age. All recovered after being treated with appropriate antibiotics.   

Staph bacteria are spread mainly by skin-to-skin contact, especially via openings in the skin such as cuts, wounds or abrasions; by direct contact with contaminated items or surfaces; and also may result from poor hygiene.

Health officials recommend the following precautions to reduce the risk of MRSA infections:

• Wash hands with soap and warm running water frequently, especially after contact with nose secretions and drainage from skin openings.
• Trainers should diligently wash hands before sessions with each athlete.
• Skin openings -- cuts, wounds or abrasions -- should be covered at all times with clean, dry bandages.
• Dispose of used bandages in a closed plastic bag so others don’t have contact with infectious drainage.                   
• Wear disposable gloves when having contact with an infected wound and wash hands immediately after removing the gloves.
• Avoid sharing personal items such as towels, washcloths, razors and clothing that may have come in contact with an infected wound.
• Wash soiled linens and clothing in hot water and detergent.  Drying in a hot dryer is better than air-drying.
• Clean potentially contaminated surfaces with a commercial disinfectant or a bleach-water solution -- ¼ cup of household bleach to one gallon of water.

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Visit our web site at www.achd.net

Additional resource: http://www.achd.net/factsheet/mrsa.htm