By Lee Bowman
Scripps Howard News Service
The playful snap of a towel in the locker room is ill-advised. Shower flip-flops are fashionable. And while sweat is still admirable in athletics and fitness, it's more important than ever to avoid sharing equipment, uniforms, even furniture, that comes into contact with the skin.
Staph infections, particularly those that are resistant to not only penicillin-type drugs, but a broader spectrum of antibiotics, have recently jumped from hospitals and nursing homes to ordinary community settings like schools, gyms and fitness clubs.
Staph can flourish in any sort of locker room, from middle school PE to elite training rooms.
Doctors reported at a recent scientific meeting on infectious diseases that methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus related infections are causing pneumonia, sinus infections, even flesh-destroying wounds that begin as minor skin infections.
Most MRSA infections begin on the skin. At any given time, at least 30 percent of healthy people in the population have some type of staph germ living on his or her skin or in the nose.
Normally, healthy immune systems can keep the germs in check. But if the skin gets broken, even by a small scratch or scrape, an infection can take hold. And if the bacteria happen to be among the 10 percent or so that are able to evade antibiotics, the infection becomes much more difficult to clear up.
It's an extreme case for MRSA to kill through the skin, but infections that spread to the bloodstream, lungs or other organs are more likely to be life threatening.
The CDC estimates that about 95,000 serious infections and 20,000 deaths in the United States each year are due to drug-resistant staph bacteria.
Although most of these still start in a hospital or long-term care facility, CDC researchers say surveys of hospitals found that at least 10 percent of the most common community-acquired staph strains are drug resistant.
And a report last summer from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that among children 17 and younger, skin infections have become the 8th-most common reason for hospitalizations as of 2006, up from 17th just 6 years before.
The legs, face and buttocks were the most common infection sites for the more than 10,600 children hospitalized, and researchers said the rise is almost certainly due in part to increasing resistance to antibiotics.
Most staph infections, including those caused by MRSA, appear as a bump or infected area on the skin that may be red, swollen, painful, warm to the touch, perhaps draining. The symptoms may also include a fever.
"Well-informed parents are a child's best defense against MRSA and other skin infections, " said Dr. Rachel Gorwitz, a CDC pediatrician and infectious disease researcher.
"Recognizing the signs and receiving treatment in the early stages of a skin infection reduces the chances of the infection becoming severe or spreading,'' she added.
Basic cleanliness and good hygiene -- hand washing and regular bathing are the first line of defense.
It's crucial to keep areas of skin that have been cut, scraped or suffering a rash, say from poison ivy, from being exposed by using an appropriate bandage and antiseptic or antibiotic ointments. And if a teammate or family member has a staph infection, avoid all sharing of towels, razors, clothing, sheets or anything that might spread the germs.
E-mail Lee Bowman at bowmanl@shns.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com.
