Staph infections prompt health officials to stress hygiene

Shower after football practice. Don't share towels, razors or water bottles with your teammates. If you have a cut, use a bandage. And for heaven's sake, disinfect your gym bag once in a while.

That's the advice experts are handing out to parents after two high school football players were diagnosed with an antibiotic-resistant infection. Doctors have released the two Naperville North freshmen to return to play, but schools meanwhile are scrubbing down and advising parents on hygiene protocol.

"They shouldn't be sharing towels or deodorant, or girls sharing pierced earrings," said Ellen Wolff, supervisor of health services for Naperville Unit District 203. "And washing hands is important."

Roughly a third of the population carries methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureas, or MRSA, in their nose or on their skin, most likely without being aware of it. A small cut or break in the skin gives the bacteria entry into the body and can cause a serious infection that wards off many antibiotics.

Historically, MRSA has been most dangerous to people whose immune systems are already compromised, such as hospital patients. But starting in the 1990s, doctors began seeing healthy people who contracted dangerous MRSA infections out in the community, including high school, college and professional locker rooms.

The best documented outbreak happened to the St. Louis Rams in 2003. Five players developed infections at sites of turf burns on their elbows, forearms and knees. In a study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, investigators found players frequently shared towels, played in games with open sores and did not routinely clean weight-training equipment.

Such cases are increasing, said Dr. Michael David, an infectious disease specialist and MRSA researcher at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Today, most of the people entering the hospital with an infected wound have MRSA that they picked up elsewhere, he said.

Inner-city children, prison populations and soldiers living in military barracks are at higher risk, David said.

Schools are taking notice. Athletic trainers are emphasizing hygiene more often among players, said Brian Robinson, head athletic trainer at Glenbrook South High School and chairman of the National Athletic Trainers' Association secondary school committee.

Glenbrook has a soccer player right now whose being watched for possible MRSA, Robinson said.

"The hygiene is the biggest thing," he said. "It's near impossible to get kids to take showers after practice anymore, but that's one of the easiest ways to prevent this."

The federal and state governments don't track MRSA infections the way they do other communicable diseases, so firm numbers aren't available. But Shaun Nelson, disease control manager for the DuPage County Health Department, said his office hears from a couple of schools a year that have small outbreaks. The department responds with advice on hygiene and sanitation.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, most people don't pick up MRSA from contaminated surfaces. The bacteria usually spreads via skin-to-skin contact and personal items.

The infections sometimes look like a pimple, boil or spider bite. If it has pus or drainage, an infected person should see a doctor immediately, Nelson said.

Most MRSA infections are skin infections treatable with oral antibiotics. But in 6 percent to 10 percent of cases, David said, the infection invades the blood or organs, and it can be fatal. A study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association found more than 90,000 Americans get invasive MRSA infections each year; that includes a Virginia high school senior who died earlier this week from MRSA that spread to his kidneys, liver, lungs and muscles around his heart.

Lawmakers are starting to get involved. A new law approved this year in Illinois will require hospitals to establish programs to identify MRSA patients and report cases of infection. While the bill is controversial among doctors, families who've lost a loved one to MRSA say it's needed.

Thirteen-year-old Mark Weis of Naperville died in August from an MRSA infection he contracted while battling bone cancer. He had just started chemotherapy treatments at University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital when he developed an infection, said his mother, Melissa Weis. Mark went into septic shock and died Aug. 23. The hospital declined to discuss the case, citing privacy concerns.

Melissa Weis had never heard of MRSA. Then she learned health care experts expect over 19,000 people to die of MRSA infections this year. That's astonishing for a country with such an advanced health care system, Weis said.

"I'm just amazed when they throw these numbers out," she said. "This is not number 19,217. This is Mark Weis, who loved animals, who played sports, who had a great sense of humor, that has a family that misses him every day. And it's preventable. That's what's so sad."