Non-lethal staph infection scares
Student contracts harmless infection at gym; deadly MRSA staph national concern
Liz Klimas
Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: News
A brush with staph infection brought a nationwide concern to campus this month, but junior Amanda Robertson said antibiotics treated the rash she believes formed from unsanitary gym equipment.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is creating lethal situations and caused the death of a 17-year-old Virginia high school student Oct. 15.
Bacteria lurk in locker rooms, bathrooms and showers, on gym equipment, damp towels and razors. Robertson said she believes she got some form of a staph infection, though not MRSA, from gym equipment a few weeks ago.
"I went to a nurse who said rashes are hard to diagnose but she thought it was a staph infection," said Robertson, who was given antibiotics as treatment. "At that point I was going to the gym everyday."
Most staph infections are acquired though open sores or though nasal passages and cause skin infections, toxic shock syndrome or food poisoning. They appear as a rash resembling small spider bites or pimples, College Nurse Maureen Cousino said.
"If there is a lot of pain that's a clue that something is not right," she said.
Robertson said she thought they were bug bites at first and they never itched and were not painful. According to the Mayo Clinic Web site, which provides medical information, MRSA can move from a small rash to a larger and painful sore.
Cousino said standard hygiene practices can prevent such infections.
"Washing, keep cover on open sores, change bandages daily and avoid sharing personal items are all ways to avoid an infection," she said.
Cousino said there are usually a few staphylococcus infections each year, though not the methicillin-resistant strain. Though two years ago, she said, a student did have the resistant strain but went straight to the hospital for treatment.
Robertson now practices cleaner gym practices.
"I wash [equipment] before and after now so it is dripping with antibacterial stuff. I see people get on and off without wiping it down and that is just disgusting," she said.
Sophomore Mary Kate Cavasos, who frequents the gym at least once a day, said she is concerned about cleaner gym equipment as well.
"That is one of the reasons why I go in the morning," she said. "People clean it at night and I am usually the first person on the equipment in the next day."
She also said she has seen people use Windex to wipe their machines instead of the antibacterial chemical, and if they do wipe they often don't do so thoroughly.
According to the Mayo Clinic, healthy individuals commonly have the staphylococcus aureus bacteria on their skin, nasal passages and throat. These infections become more serious when they go deeper into the body and are commonly seen in hospital settings - hospital-associated MRSA (HA-MRSA) - where a patient's immune system is already down.
Now, community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) infections are becoming more prevalent and virulent, occurring in non-hospital settings but still affecting mostly those with weakened defense systems, according to a press release from the Institute of Progressive Medicine issued Nov. 11.
Biology Department Chairman Frank Steiner said recent scientific papers have identified small peptide proteins produced by CA-MRSA that don't necessarily make the bacteria more resistant to antibiotics but increase cytolysin chemicals that cause cells to burst and contribute to the spread of the staph infection.
Currently, the vancomycin antibiotic treats MRSA is.
"There is a concern a vancomycin-resistant strain will eventually emerge," Steiner said. "In terms of evolution, vancomycin represents selection pressure. The more we can do to be as careful as we can with the prescription of antibiotics, the better slowing down [emergence] of new resistant strains will be."
Steiner, whose microbiology class takes bacterial samples from around the school as a laboratory project, said over the past 20 years of doing this lab, results have consistently shown low levels of surfaces harboring bacteria.
"This shows our people go there on a daily basis and disinfect the things they should be."
Hillsdale College Collegian, 2007
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is creating lethal situations and caused the death of a 17-year-old Virginia high school student Oct. 15.
Bacteria lurk in locker rooms, bathrooms and showers, on gym equipment, damp towels and razors. Robertson said she believes she got some form of a staph infection, though not MRSA, from gym equipment a few weeks ago.
"I went to a nurse who said rashes are hard to diagnose but she thought it was a staph infection," said Robertson, who was given antibiotics as treatment. "At that point I was going to the gym everyday."
Most staph infections are acquired though open sores or though nasal passages and cause skin infections, toxic shock syndrome or food poisoning. They appear as a rash resembling small spider bites or pimples, College Nurse Maureen Cousino said.
"If there is a lot of pain that's a clue that something is not right," she said.
Robertson said she thought they were bug bites at first and they never itched and were not painful. According to the Mayo Clinic Web site, which provides medical information, MRSA can move from a small rash to a larger and painful sore.
Cousino said standard hygiene practices can prevent such infections.
"Washing, keep cover on open sores, change bandages daily and avoid sharing personal items are all ways to avoid an infection," she said.
Cousino said there are usually a few staphylococcus infections each year, though not the methicillin-resistant strain. Though two years ago, she said, a student did have the resistant strain but went straight to the hospital for treatment.
Robertson now practices cleaner gym practices.
"I wash [equipment] before and after now so it is dripping with antibacterial stuff. I see people get on and off without wiping it down and that is just disgusting," she said.
Sophomore Mary Kate Cavasos, who frequents the gym at least once a day, said she is concerned about cleaner gym equipment as well.
"That is one of the reasons why I go in the morning," she said. "People clean it at night and I am usually the first person on the equipment in the next day."
She also said she has seen people use Windex to wipe their machines instead of the antibacterial chemical, and if they do wipe they often don't do so thoroughly.
According to the Mayo Clinic, healthy individuals commonly have the staphylococcus aureus bacteria on their skin, nasal passages and throat. These infections become more serious when they go deeper into the body and are commonly seen in hospital settings - hospital-associated MRSA (HA-MRSA) - where a patient's immune system is already down.
Now, community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) infections are becoming more prevalent and virulent, occurring in non-hospital settings but still affecting mostly those with weakened defense systems, according to a press release from the Institute of Progressive Medicine issued Nov. 11.
Biology Department Chairman Frank Steiner said recent scientific papers have identified small peptide proteins produced by CA-MRSA that don't necessarily make the bacteria more resistant to antibiotics but increase cytolysin chemicals that cause cells to burst and contribute to the spread of the staph infection.
Currently, the vancomycin antibiotic treats MRSA is.
"There is a concern a vancomycin-resistant strain will eventually emerge," Steiner said. "In terms of evolution, vancomycin represents selection pressure. The more we can do to be as careful as we can with the prescription of antibiotics, the better slowing down [emergence] of new resistant strains will be."
Steiner, whose microbiology class takes bacterial samples from around the school as a laboratory project, said over the past 20 years of doing this lab, results have consistently shown low levels of surfaces harboring bacteria.
"This shows our people go there on a daily basis and disinfect the things they should be."
Hillsdale College Collegian, 2007
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