PRESS RELEASE

January 04, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMMUNITY-ACQUIRED METHICILLIN RESISTANT STAPHYLOCOCCAL AUREUS (MRSA) INFECTION IN ATHLETES

The subject of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection in athletes was updated at the Advanced Team Physician Course in Miami, Florida. Dr. James Moriarity, Head Team Physician at the University of Notre Dame and President-elect of the American Medical
Society for Sports Medicine, reviewed the emerging role that methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is playing in athletic training rooms across the United States. Once thought to be a problem only in the hospital setting, MRSA has spread rapidly into the community, acquiring increased transmissibility factors that have made athletes and athletic venues especially susceptible.

Transmission between teammates and to competitors has been increasingly reported, with severity ranging from minor skin involvement to systemic infection requiring hospitalization. Failure of proper hygienic practices among athletes with open sores and contamination of playing surfaces and equipment has been implicated as a causative factor in the transmission of MRSA. Many protocols for prevention have been suggested. To date, the best overall strategy is insistence on strict hygienic practices designed to limit surface colonization. Treatment for established infection involves incision and drainage of lesions, use of topical antibiotics and antibacterial soaps, and judicious use of oral antibiotics. Among competitors, all wounds should be covered to prevent transmission to other athletes, and athletes should be held from competition when this is not possible.

The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) was organized in 1991by physicians who recognized the need for an organization within the field of sports medicine that approached athletes, exercising individuals, and teams comprehensively with consultative and continuous care of their orthopedic, medical, nutritional, and psychosocial issues.  Although sports medicine concepts are often thought of in conjunction with professional and elite athletes, these concepts apply to athletes of all levels including grade school, high school, college and recreational athletes.  AMSSM is comprised of over 800 Sports Medicine Physicians whose goal is to provide a link between the rapidly expanding core of knowledge related to sports medicine and its application to patients in a clinical setting.