Staph Hits School Gym Locker Rooms

Arizona Researchers Work On Staph Detection While Outbreaks Are Reported Across U.S.

(CBS/AP)  School gym locker rooms all over the country are suspected to be the breeding ground for staph infections, including an antibiotic resistant strain, that are causing school districts to take new precautions, sterilize locker rooms and close gyms.

A Detroit-area high school football player has been diagnosed with a drug-resistant staph infection and eight of his teammates reported a similar rash, the school district says.

As a result, Troy High School closed its physical education and varsity locker rooms, weight and training rooms, and interior walls on Wednesday so they could be disinfected, local media reported.

The eight other players with similar skin irritations sought treatment, but had not been diagnosed with the disease, district spokesman Tim McAvoy said.

The scare comes after a 17-year-old high school senior in Bedford, Va., died Monday after being diagnosed with MRSA or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

The government says it’s a real public health concern. According to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, MRSA caused about 94,000 infections and more than 18,000 deaths in 2005, reports CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook.

“I think it's a tipping point in the United States,” said Dr. Neil Fishman, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Pennsylvania, “and I think we are ... certainly on the heels of a national crisis.”

In North Carolina, officials say at least six football players at East Forsyth High School have the antibiotic-resistant staph infections. School officials say the first case was confirmed in early September. East Forsyth officials are sanitizing all locker rooms, cleaning sports equipment, and requiring all student athletes to shower.

Outbreaks continued around the country, including eight football players at Nashua North High School in New Hampshire were the first to be reported with staph infections. Pinkerton Academy in Derry said at least 15 football players also recently had skin infections.

In Virginia, Chesterfield County school official say three football players at James River High School have been treated recently for staph infections.

James River activities director Doug Bachman said the first case at the Chesterfield County school was in August and the most recent was about three weeks ago.

Infections have been recently been reported in school districts in states including West Virginia, Illinois, Ohio and Florida.

Meanwhile, Northern Arizona University researchers say they've discovered a new way to detect staph infections, including the deadly antibiotic-resistant varieties.

The new diagnostic tool, they tell radio station KNAU, identifies infections inside biofilms, which are communities of microorganisms bound together inside the body.

The researchers say biofilms cause more than 70 percent of community- and hospital-acquired infections.

NAU associate professor Jeff Leid says the new device will help physicians diagnose the staph infections more quickly.

Staph infections commonly spread from skin-to-skin contact or by sharing objects. People with sores or open wounds are particularly at risk.

[pghlady3]

Thank you Bush, Nancy Pelosi, and anyone else who doesn''t see illegal''s as a problem. Having worked in the medical field for 11 years, I know all these illegals with no medical background checks is the main problem. People from different countries have different diseases. Years ago this country gave everyone coming into it a chest x-ray. WE NEED TO DO THAT NOW. And no it''s not discrimination, it''s keeping our citizens alive. We did it before, we need to do it now.

[jmbridges2]

My husband and I recently came back from a vaction in Florida. I became infected with staph before I flew home but didn'';t know what it was. I finally went to the hospital and the doctor said it was an ifection, don''t squeeze it and it will go away. A couple weeks later my husband got a boil on his buttocks and I got another one on my upper shoulder blade and both of us had some lumps under our arm pits. They were so painful and my huband had his cut out, cleaned, cultured and packed that night in ER. Watching this procedure I refused to let that doctor touch me. The nurse told us later when we were alone we had MRSA and go home and look it up and that I need to get mine cultured and treated asap. The next day I found myself in the doctors office and when the weekend was over our cultures came back as MRSA. The both of us had the sores dug into, squeezed, packed for a week and now we are off all atibioctics. It was unbearable and if the first time I went to ER for my first sore on my elbow and had a culture done it could have been stopped before I gave it to my husband and went through the whole ordeal. JB in KS

[jakih1108]

First of all, the problem here is NOT illegal immigrants. The problem here is the medical professionals over-prescribing antibiotics. Bacteria only gain resistance to antibiotics after repeated exposure. In fact, this is a perfect example of survival of the fittest. When antibiotics are prescribed to treat bacterial infections, they are usually effective in killing off all the susceptible bacteria; however, there are some bacteria that are resistant, do to random mutations in the genome or excessive exposure. These resistant bacteria are the ones that are left after everything else has been killed and these are the ones that continue to live and thrive. In recent years, there has been a trend for doctors to prescribe antibiotics only when it is absolutely necessary. Most of these MRSA infections have originated in hospitals, where antibiotics are prescribed in large amounts. These strains of Staphylococcus aureus have now spread throughout our communities.

[jakih1108]

Being a microbiologist, I am passionate about finding a solution to problems like these. In Russia, they do not have an antibiotic resistant problem because they do not prescribe antibiotics freely. Instead, they use a natural process to treat bacterial infections: phage therapy. In short, phage therapy uses viruses specific only to bacteria (these viruses are called phages) to kill the bacteria. Because these viruses do not infect humans, there is no harm to a person when they are exposed. In some hospitals in Russia, they use these phages to disinfect their hospitals by spraying virus containing solutions all of the equipment and surfaces. There are even phages that can effectively kill MRSA! And, because this is a naturally occurring process, when bacteria become resistant to the phage, the phage mutates with the bacteria!

This solution is not available in the US, mostly because of regulatory issues as well as monetary issues. This is not something that people can make money on because it cannot be patented. It''s a shame that a solution is available and is so simple but cannot be used. Ultimately, antibiotics will not be the solution to this growing problem. There has not been a new antibiotic discovered in years and the problem of antibiotic resistance still remains.

[alphaa10-2009]

A watershed moment for American public health, or what is left of it. For years, various health writers have been dismissed as nags and naysayers for criticizing the prevalent medical practice of giving out antibiotics for everything. It goes without saying, the practice of putting triclosan in soap does little but encourage superbugs, as the above news story reports.

It gets curiouser. A survey of pollution sources for the world''s river systems recently found a river in a Third World country was filled with residue from the manufacture of the trade-name, expensive antibiotic Cipro. Presumably, the superbugs now will become even more resistant, especially to Cipro.

Contrast this finding with the claim of the pharmaceutical industry and FDA that seniors cannot risk purchasing their drugs from overseas because of concerns about quality and contamination.

[mswolfestock]

I''m not surprised that this infection is prevalent among kids in high school. Today''s kids have grown up on antibiotics for every little sore throat they ever had. Their natural resistance to infection has been compromised by the indiscriminate use of antibiotics. That''s why they have no resistance to this germ that has become resistant to the antibiotics the kids have been taking since they were babies.

[alphaa10-2009]

jakih1108-- Where can I read more about this technique? PubMed? Or is there a better place?

[jakih1108]

PubMed is an excellent source. Even google is great...use keywords ''phage therapy'' and ''virotherapy''. Science and Nature have some article that may be archived.

Here is a link to a small liberal arts school in Washington State that has a great program: http://academic.evergreen.edu/projects/phage/phagetherapy/phagetherapy.htm

I just think it''s so important to get this kind of information out to the public!!

[d21330]

My 30yr old daughter had MRSA. It first started with open wounds on her feet she had been a diabetic from the age of 14yrs old besides being a diabetic her wounds would not heal instead this UGLY disease planted itself on her wounds and spread like wild fire. It eventually attacked her heart & spine with much vegitation(growth) that she had to have open heart surgery and was left partially paralized,
i contracted this deadly disease from her, there is no antibotics that help me when I get boils, I have them lanced and that is about the only thing that helps. My daughter passed away 2yrs ago.

[incog-nito]

All this warning to tell kids to wash their hands is somewhat ironic. In the public restrooms it seems that about half of ADULTS don''t wash their hands. So it looks like the problem won''t go away any time soon.

[greco99-2009]

There have been many cases of drug resistant staph coming out of Iraq.

Are these related strains?

[pebbles_77]

I don''t understand why more institutions use the ground breaking products from this company? see www.purebio.com. If it can eliminate infections in a prison over a 14 month span, surely it would help reduce the number of cases in schools and hospitals.

[pebbles_77]

I don''t understand why more institutions use the ground breaking products from this company? see www.purebio.com. If it can eliminate infections in a prison over a 14 month span, surely it would help reduce the number of cases in schools and hospitals.