Apples for Health- Inadequate hygiene raises teen MRSA risk

Inadequate hygiene raises teen MRSA risk

ATLANTA, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Inadequate hygiene among high school athletes increases their risk of contracting methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, U.S. health officials said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report said effective MRSA skin and soft tissue infection outbreak prevention among high school football programs could be achieved by designing processes and facilities to enable and promote optimal player hygiene and better educating coaching staff.

The investigation of a high school football team MRSA outbreak in New York in 2007 suggests that football training camps are a setting where multiple risk factors converge to increase the likelihood of MRSA outbreaks. These risk factors include inadequate hygiene among players like sharing personal items, inadequate skin injury care and possibly crowded living conditions.

Outbreaks of soft tissue infection like MRSA continue to be a problem among football teams, especially at the high school level, the report said.