Staph infections and shower facilities

[ScubaTexan]

Recently, I saw an episode of ESPN's Outside The Lines in which they reported on a recent quasi-epidemic of staph infections -- specifically MRSA -- among professional sports locker rooms and showers. One team (I can't recall which one at the moment) was taking a strong initiative to have its dressing facilities decontaminated and disinfected. The problem, however, is not just in the presence of the bacteria in the facilities itself, but in the sharing of towels and other assorted toiletries in the locker areas.

It got me to thinking -- have any of you ever been concerned about the facilities that have been afforded to you after dives, vis-a-vis bacteria and staph in the showers and on the dive boats? I don't want to come across as an alarmist, but I have to believe the threat probably exists to an extent.

Thoughts?

 

[fisherdvm]

Staphylococcus doesn't live off the body very long, unless in a damp warm environment. I think it is more a problem in the gym where folks share equipments after one another, and have their sweat and sweaty palms over all the grips, etc.

I am less worried of shower facilities. It would be difficult for your towel to pick up a bug from the hanger where another has hung his moments ago.

Alot of the antifungal products are bacteriostatic, and I believe regular use of these products can prevent the transmission of staph.

I wouldn't worry of staph transmission on a dive boat unless you are renting your suit. Certainly, rental regs and BCs can be a problem. I can imagine that they can grow in the damp interior of the regs and BC hose.

But I don't think anyone has done a study to prove this.

 

[Cacia]

Nope.

I have been around all kinds of cooties and never gotten anything.

Don't think about it, or then you will let them in to your body.

People who believe they get sick on planes, always do.

You always hear about washing your hands....I think the same extends to your body, the best thing is just shower a lot. I get laughed at, but I would never go to sleep without a shower, for example...your goal is not to let all that stuff divide and take up residence on your body. So...it's there, you just need to limit it's numbers.

Flora is everywhere and most of those bacteria are all over the place, you don't "catch" them because they are already all there, for the most part. So, think in terms of not letting them in by being as healthy as possible.

My sister and I were making fun of my mom because she was going on and on about things that they found in hotel rooms with infared light....she thinks amino acids are going to attack her. She is so afraid of germs that she travels in a motor home.

oops..."Diving Medicine" I did not see that.

 

[ReefGuy]

We were just sent a bulletin on MRSA. It's become quite a problem in jails and prisons, and with law enforcement and emergency services in general. if you're interested I can post the bulletin, it's got some nasty pictures of staph infections.

 

[ScubaTexan]

We were just sent a bulletin on MRSA. It's become quite a problem in jails and prisons, and with law enforcement and emergency services in general. if you're interested I can post the bulletin, it's got some nasty pictures of staph infections.

Thanks, ReefGuy, but I've seen the pictures. Nasty doesn't begin to describe them... :11:

 

[TSandM]

MRSA is a growing problem, and where it used to be almost exclusively an issue with nursing home patients or hospitalized patients, it's showing up more and more in people with none of what we used to think of as identifiable risk factors. It's pretty common practice now to culture any ugly-looking cutaneous infection, where we used to treat empirically.

Staph can grow in certain foods (eggs, especially) but as far as I'm aware, it's not generally present in standing water. (Pseudomonas is, though!) The locker room problems are more likely to be person-to-person transmission or contamination of something like lotion or soap or something else that can actually provide substrate for the bacteria.

Intact skin is an excellent barrier, but most of us have tiny lesions (scratches or pinpricks) especially if we have been spending time on boats (she says, looking at her bruised and scraped shins after four days in Cozumel). Good hygiene is the best preventative measure you can take to prevent infection from taking root. Don't share towels or washclothes with other people, and use an antibacterial wash when you can.

 

[rawls]

Staph infections are about the nastiest infections you can get. If you have a wound, make sure you keep it cleansed. You never know where it is hiding. MRSA...Methycillin Resistant Staph Aureus...Ha, Ha...We will probably all be carriers at some point in the future...

 

[Cacia]

So is MSRA like the "flesh eating bacteria" surfers get in Indonesia?

We have scares here since the sewage spills in the canal...the canoe clubs have moved to Hawaii Kai and there are rumors about infections picked up in the sand.

 

[cgvmer]

Flesh eating bacteria is more prevalent than you think. Last September 10th I was watching my son's football game. I walked my daughter to some of her friends so she could go to lunch with them, on the return to my seat a floor board of the stands broke and my leg went through.
The paramedics cleaned the scratch on my leg, and I went to a doctor the next day. The doctor xrayed the leg to exclude any bone damage. No breaks, and the doctor cleaned the wound, saying it was only a bad scratch, told me to keep it covered and use a topical anti bacterial cream.

3 weeks later I returned to the doctor, the scratch was warm, and swollen.

I was sent to a wound care center, where over the next 4 months a deep wound was treated:
First with debridement of the wound which found necratic tissue down to the bone.

Second 6 weeks of daily intravenous antibiotics.

Third an overnight stay for surgical debridement to remove the the dead tissue, the surgery found three signifcant tunnels had been eaten by the bacteria. A wound vacumn was attached at this point which I carried for 5 weeks.

In all from accident to release from the wound care was more than 4 months.

The doctors could not find any reason this bacteria took hold, no diabetes, no hypertension, no circulation issues,

So yes, these bacteria areall around us.

 

[KazooDiver]

MRSA is just one of many organisms that cause problems...think of all the cruise ships that have to be "decontaminated". But MRSA is usually person to person, or fluid contact to pass on. And Yes soon we will all be colonized by this bug.

TSandM-aren't there several studies recommending against anti-bacterial soap...showing that normal soaps with proper washing is just as effective and less of a chance for resistance???

I would think that you may have more of a risk of some nasty fungal infection from scuba equipment since it is frequently wet for long periods of time.