Beaches May Be Safe Harbor for MRSA

Drug-resistant staph bacteria have been
found on public beaches in Washington state, and beaches in other states may
harbor the superbug too.

MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) was once rarely
seen outside of hospitals or other health care facilities. But in the past
decade, cases have been rising in communities.

Community-acquired infections in people without risk factors such as poor
hygiene are a growing concern, but little is known about environmental sources
of MRSA, says Marilyn Roberts, PhD, an environmental health scientist at the
University of Washington in Seattle.

The new study suggests marine water and sand may harbor the bug, she
says.

Roberts tells WebMD that an individual beachgoer's risk of acquiring the
infection is unknown.

"But we thought that chance of finding MRSA [at the beach] would be zero.
The very fact that we found these organisms suggests that the level is much
higher than we had thought," she says.

The findings were presented at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial
Agents and Chemotherapy.

Earlier this year, other researchers reported they found MRSA in samples
taken from South Florida beaches.

For the new study, Roberts and colleagues tested marine water and sand
samples from beaches along the Puget Sound in Washington from February to
September 2008.

Staph bacteria were found at nine of 10 beaches tested. Five of the beaches
harbored strains of multidrug-resistant staph.

To the researchers' surprise, most of the samples "looked more like
hospital-acquired MRSA strains than the bacteria typically found in the
community," Roberts says. Three samples, from beaches 10 miles apart, were
"essentially the same," she says.

Roberts says further research is needed to find out the exact source of the
bacteria. In the meantime, people should continue to enjoy the beach, she
says.

Her recommendations for lowering the risk of infection:

• Make sure you get all the sand off when you get out of the water. Digging
  and being buried in the sand appear to raise the risk of infection.


• Clean and bandage any open cuts or scrapes before playing in the sand.


• If a scrape looks infected a few days after a trip to the beach, see a
  health care professional right away.

"Staph is a salt-loving organism. It's not surprising to see it in the
ocean," he tells WebMD. Peterson, a microbiologist at NorthShore University
Health System in Evanston, Ill., was not involved with the research.

By Charlene Laino
Reviewed by Louise Chang
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