Super Clean Professional Equipment Cleaning

Another Healthy Teen Dies of MRSA

The stories are just getting too common and too sad. Another healthy teen, 13-year-old Michael Literski of Frankford, Pennsylvania, died on February 16, 2009. He thought he had a bad cold or flu, but the autopsy revealed that it was a MRSA infection. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health does not believe that the staph infection was acquired at school; however, the family thought it important to inform the school district that their son had died of MRSA. To read more, click here.

High School Basketball Player Dies of Drug-Resistant Staph

A 17-year old high school student, Kyle Gagnon, died last week as a result of pneumonia which, pathologists revealed, was secondary to a staph infection. Kyle was a junior who played on the basketball team at Mohonasen High School in Rotterdam, New York.

New Strain of MRSA in US Livestock Threatens Public Health

Op-Ed reporter, Nicholas Kristoff, wrote an article in the New York Times on March 11, 2009 about an alarming trend in a small farming town in Indiana: the high percentage of MRSA in the town's human population. One of the town's family practitioners, Dr. Tom Anderson, treated many patients with MRSA infections, including himself as well as his daughter. At first, Dr. Anderson did not know why he was treating patient after patient with MRSA in such a small population and then he started to believe that the pig farms surrounding the town were somehow the cause of the spread of the disease in the town's occupants. But before he could meet with Kristoff to investigate the story, Dr. Anderson died at the young age of 54. Kristoff points out in his piece that there are many indications that pigs could infect people with MRSA. First, in the Netherlands in 2004, a young woman who lived on a pig farm tested positive for a new strain of MRSA, called 'ST398'. Public health authorities swept in and found that 3 family members, 3 farm workers and 8 of 10 of the pigs tested all carried MRSA. Since then, that strain of MRSA has spread rapidly through the Netherlands, especially in swine-producing areas. In addition, a small Dutch study found that pig farmers there were 760 times more likely than the general population to carry MRSA. Furthermore, an article published in "Scientific America" shows that this strain of MRSA affects people who live near pig farms. If you think this pig MRSA is only across the Atlantic Ocean, think again. A study by Tara Smith, an epidemiologist at the University of Iowa, indicates that 45 percent of the American pig farmers she sampled carried MRSA, as did 49 percent of the hogs tested. These studies may explain why Dr. Tom Anderson treated so many MRSA cases in his small pig-farming town of Camden, Indiana. Kristoff opines that this new strain of MRSA is probably caused by the routine overuse of antibiotics in our country's livestock feed and that our agricultural system has helped breed this new threat to our public health. To read more of Kristoff's article, please click here and stay tuned for future op-ed pieces from the author centered on MRSA's threat to this country, published in the New York Times.

A New Strain of MRSA Affecting the Human Population Through Pig Farming

There is anecdotal and empiric evidence that a new strain of MRSA is being spread among livestock and then being transmitted to humans, with severe repercussions. A study in a Dutch journal found that a form of MRSA in swine that is different from the MRSA that is epidemic in many parts of the United States has caused infection in humans. A 63-year-old woman with a kidney transplant was admitted with heart inflammation caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The isolated S. aureus was identified as sequence type 398, a MRSA-strain that has recently been isolated from a high percentage of Dutch pigs. This is the first report of a life-threatening infection with this 'pig MRSA'. This strain is genetically different from the globally dispersed MRSA-strains, and also from the strains that have been epidemic for several years in the United States as the causative agent ofcommunity-acquired skin infections. The Dutch Working Group on Infection Prevention (WIP) updated its recommendations in order to prevent the further spread of this strain, and advises that the population at risk (pig breeders, slaughterhouse personnel and veterinarians) be held in isolation when hospitalised until MRSA colonisation has been excluded. The patient described here, however, did not belong to this population at risk. This may be another example of a MRSA strain jumping outside of its local boundaries and into the general population. To read more about this study, click here.

High School Football Programs Are Now Facing Latest Type of Lawsuit

Recently served with complaints from two students, Huntington Beach High School is facing the latest type of litigation that involves staph infections. The students claim that they contracted staph infections from their football equipment. In an Orange County Register interview, Huntington Beach High football coach Eric Lo stated, "If it was an outbreak because of our equipment then 15 to 20 kids would be coming down with staph infections." Contrary to Mr. Lo's statement, medical studies show that staph bacteria can live on equipment for minutes, hours and even days. Just because all members of the team do not fall ill does not mean that the bacteria is not living and breeding on the equipment. The bacteria must first seek an entry inside the body - through a cut or scrape, or touching your eyes or mouth without washing your hands. The bacteria must have found a way inside the bodies of the two students at Huntington Beach High and not the others. Lo said, "The way to combat staph infections is showering." While showering is one way to prevent a staph infection, according to the US Center for Disease Control it is just one part of an overall risk management program which also includes the regular cleaning of sports equipment. To read more of this article, please click here.

Student Athletes Sue Huntington Beach High School for Improperly Cleaned Football Equipment

Two students have filed lawsuits against Huntington Beach High School claiming that improperly cleaned football equipment caused them to contract serious staph infections. The student-athletes contracted staph infections on their elbows, knees, forehead and chin areas. One of the claimants was hospitalized and underwent wound care therapy upon release as part of his prescribed recovery. The other student also incurred costly medical treatment. An article published by The Reeves Law Group states that the school has stubbornly refused to take any responsibility for the staph infections or the cleaning of the equipment. Staph, or staphyloccocus aureus, and its deadly counterpart, MRSA, affects young, healthy individuals and is most prevalent in contact sports such as football. It is epidemic in a few areas of the country - such as the state of Texas and the Los Angeles area. It would behoove all schools in the Los Angeles area to make the regular cleaning of athletic equipment an integral part of their risk management programs so as to avoid defending costly litigation. To read more about this litigation, click here.