Staph infections rise among athletes
By TOM WITHERS, AP Sports Writer
news.yahoo.com
11/25/2006
CLEVELAND - Brian Russell had no idea what hit him. A guy who routinely
tackles 250-pound running backs head-on and occasionally gets pulverized by
rampaging 350-pound NFL linemen for a living nearly saw his season end
because of a microscopic germ. The
Cleveland Browns safety was flattened by a staph infection that hospitalized
him during the preseason.
"I went from being in tiptop shape, to a few hours later, being knocked on
my butt and having surgery," Russell said, recalling his scary scrape with a
skin bacteria that's becoming harder for antibiotics such as penicillin to
defeat.
"It happened just like that."
Stories like Russell's are becoming more common. Staph infections, in
varying and sometimes deadly forms, are being reported in greater numbers
across Ohio and nationwide as more virulent and resilient strains are
infecting high school, college and professional athletes.
Football players, wrestlers and even fencers have contracted
methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, a serious superbug
once isolated to hospitals and health-care settings that has found its way
into locker rooms, weight rooms and athletic training facilities. Despite
widely available information about the dangers of skin infections, staph has
continued spreading.
"We don't know why," said Dr. Steve Gordon, the Cleveland Clinic's
department chairman of infectious disease. "It's why we encourage everyone
to practice proper hygiene, especially athletes who can be more at higher
risk."
An alarming rise in cases in the general population and athletic community
has led to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue warnings
about the dangers of staph. The NCAA to educate athletes on hygiene and
preventive measures.
NFL players are advised to frequently wash their hands with soap and water,
to report skin lesions to their team's medical staff, to wash cuts with soap
and water and apply the proper dressings daily.
Still, the problem has grown.
Since 2003, at least three NFL teams â?" the Browns, St. Louis Rams and
Washington Redskins â?" have documented multiple cases of staph infections.
Last summer, two Toronto Blue Jays players contracted staph, which prompted
the club to have its clubhouse sterilized.
This fall, three high school football players in suburban Lakewood were
hospitalized for staph infections. Their school was one of several in the
Cleveland area that reported multiple staph cases this year. Health
officials aren't sure if the cases were related.
But even before the strain started spreading, staph has long been a health
hazard for athletes who share towels, whirlpools and common areas like
locker rooms.
The bacteria is typically found in the nasal passages and on the skin of
healthy people, but it is potentially deadly when it enters the body through
scratches and scrapes.
Once inside, it can cause blood and joint infections, and pneumonia.
"I was in the most pain that I have ever felt ever in my life," said
Cavaliers forward Drew Gooden, who contracted a staph infection in his right
leg three years ago while with the
Orlando Magic. "I kept playing on it, thinking it was going to heal but the
infection got worse and worse to the point where my leg swelled up and I
couldn't bend my knee."
Athletes aren't alone as targets for staph.
A study this year funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
found that more than 59 percent of all skin infections in U.S. emergency
rooms have been caused by MRSA. The staph, which enters through lesions in
the skin and grows best in damp areas, has confounded doctors and
pharmacists looking for an antibiotic to fight it.
The proportion of infections due to MRSA ranged from 15 percent to as high
as 74 percent in some hospitals, the study showed.
This summer, after five Redskins players were infected, the team had its
practice facility sprayed with a sterilizing agent that controls the growth
of bacteria and mold.
The club also installed new carpeting and painted the locker room, weight
room, training room and other areas at Redskins Park in Ashburn, Va. In
addition, benches in the locker room were replaced with individual wooden
stools for each player, and a 15-year-old whirlpool bath was removed.
The team has had no incidents of staph since.
"The thing that I think is most important is educating the players what to
look for, being smart about when you have an open skin lesion, don't be
getting in common whirlpools and things like that. You've got to really
clean them good after you get them," said Bubba Tyer, the Redskins' trainer
for 35 years.
"In the old days, when we played on Astroturf when it was new, remember all
the burns and everything we'd get? We'd always put a bottle of surgical
scrub soap in the shower and let them shower with that," he said. "We've
done things like that, and it's working out well so far."
MRSA is passed person-to-person through skin contact, and while its symptoms
are normally mild, it can be fatal if left untreated.
In 2003, Ricky Lannetti, 21, a senior wide receiver at Lycoming College in
Williamsport, Pa., died suddenly from a staph infection. Friends and
teammates remembered him not feeling well leading up to his final game, but
he didn't think anything was seriously wrong.
For Russell, a tender elbow at first seemed like nothing out of the
ordinary. He figured it came from one of many blows taken and given during
training camp and in an Aug. 26 preseason game on the artificial turf in
Buffalo.
But as he relaxed at home during an evening a few days after facing the
Bills, Russell complained to his wife, Leslie, that he was hurting more than
normal.
"She was like, 'C'mon, get outta here, you get those (scratches) every
day,'" he said.
"It didn't look like anything to worry about," she said.
But overnight, Russell's sore elbow became horribly swollen and he and
Leslie knew something was wrong.
"In a couple hours, it blew up, Russell said. "It was real, real big. By the
time they got me to the hospital, my arm was overrun by the infection."
While not an outbreak, the Browns' alarming rise in staph cases brought the
club to request assistance from the Cleveland Clinic, its healthcare
provider and a sponsor. The Clinic twice sent a team to examine the team's
headquarters and indoor practice field house in Berea, Ohio.
The Clinic concluded the team was following proper procedure and CDC
recommendations to prevent staph and that the five cases involving players
were unrelated.
Russell's bout with staph was similar to what happened to teammates Ben
Taylor and Braylon Edwards, who both had elbow scratches that became
infected. Browns tight end Kellen Winslow and center LeCharles Bentley
battled staph following knee surgeries.
Russell credited team trainer Marty Lauzon and the team's medical staff for
making a quick diagnosis and getting him treatment.
"It was crazy," he said, rubbing his hand over the long incision scar on his
right elbow. "Lucky for me our doctors recognized it immediately."
Russell, who has begun wearing long sleeves as protection and a precaution,
will never look at a cut the same way.
"All I had was a sore elbow, something where you think you might have
knocked it on a door or on a wall," he said. "It was a little abrasion that
I've had thousands of times." |
