Super Clean Professional Equipment Cleaning

NFL Plagued by Staph Infections

Last week Cleveland Browns player, Kellen Winslow, revealed that he suffered from his second staph infection. Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts also recently contracted a staph infection. The Browns, as well as a number of NFL teams, have been battling these infections with increasing frequency for the last five years. How do professional athletes, who have all the latest technology and a wealth of resources, contract these dangerous infections? That is what is alarming the sports world as more and more staph cases occur. The dangerous form of staph infection, called community-associated MRSA, was born in the late 1990s, and is now widespread in the community. The US Center for Disease Control reports that the deaths of four children from MRSA in North Dakota and Minnesota during the late 1990s "demonstrate the potential severity of community-acquired MRSA infections." A study on the St. Louis Rams published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2003 found that during the 2003 football season, there were eight MRSA infections among five of the 58 Rams players. MRSA may spread particularly easily among athletes because they have repeated skin-to-skin contact, and come into contact with shared items, equipment and surfaces that have a hard time staying clean. If bacteria enter the body through bruises, cuts and abrasions, then athletes can become infected. To read more about this alarming trend in the NFL, please click here. To protect yourself from staph infections and MRSA, keep your equipment clean with Super Clean service.

Labels: football

College Basketball Star Undergoes Partial Amputation Due to MRSA Infection

Kenny George, the nation's tallest college basketball player and a member of the University of North Caroline Asheville Bulldogs, recently underwent a partial amputation of his right foot as the result of a serious staph infection. George was the Big South Conference's defensive player of the year after helping the Bulldogs win a school-record 23 games and reach the NIT last season. To read more, click here.

Football Has Higher Incidence of MRSA in High School Athletics

A study conducted in the fall of 2005 of high school athletic programs in Texas shows that MRSA is more prevalent in the sport of football than other high school sports that were surveyed. Although MRSA occurs in many different sports settings, the deadly bacteria are more likely to be spread in contact settings such as football. To see the numbers, please click here. Super Clean has two cleaning processes (one of which is mobile) that are scientifically proven to remove MRSA bacteria from football equipment.

Labels: football

US Center for Disease Control Launches National MRSA Campaign

The US Center for Disease Control has been tracking Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus for approximately ten years, but sees more danger on the horizon. Over 12 million patients visit hospitals every year for skin infections typical of staph infections and over half of that number are caused by MRSA infections. To curb this epidemic, the CDC has launched a national campaign designed to educate parents about MRSA and teach them how to prevent their children from getting infected, how to recognize the warning signs, and what to do in case a MRSA infection is suspected. Similar to Super Clean's "H.I. Five Sports" (which stands for "Hygiene Initiative For Sports"), the CDC believes that the best form of defense against MRSA is knowledge. The new National MRSA Education Initiative will include Web sites, educational material, public service announcements, mom blogging sites, and mainstream media interviews. Information will also be shared through community and school groups, professional organizations, faith-based groups, and national health conferences. To read more about this initiative, please click here. To read more about Super Clean's "H.I. Five Sports", please click here.