Nathan J. Fanter, D.O.

Contact Athletes and Super Bugs...

A recent study found contact sport athletes more likely to be colonized with MRSA.

Findings presented at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America suggest that college athletes who play contact sports may be more likely than the general population to be colonized with methicillin-resistant Staphylocuccus aureus (MRSA). The research team conducted a 2-year study of 377 male and female Vanderbilt University varsity athletes playing 14 different sports, 224 who played contact sports such as football, soccer, basketball, and lacrosse, and 153 who played noncontact sports such as baseball, cross country, and golf. They found that contact-sport athletes were more than twice as likely as noncontact athletes to be colonized with MRSA. Over the course of the study, MRSA colonization ranged from 8 percent to 31 percent among contact sports athletes, and 0 percent to 23 percent among noncontact athletes. About 5 percent to 10 percent of the general population is estimated to be colonized with MRSA.