Why are so many fighters being sidelined by staph skin infections? – Anonymous

Skin infections are very common and prompt 12 million to 14 million people to seek medical care per year in the U.S. alone.

In the arenas of combat and contact sports, I suggest there aren’t enough fighters being sidelined.

We’ve seen a recent rash (no pun intended) of MMA athletes dropped from upcoming fights due to staph (“Staphylococcus aureus”) skin infections. But we’ve also witnessed main-event fighters continuing to compete with obvious skin issues (Matt Hamil and Chael Sonnen, for example).

Prevention, early detection, constant vigilance and erring on the side of caution by quickly quarantining a fighter or gym are fundamental to properly combating this national (and increasingly global) epidemic. Unfortunately, proper skin, locker-room and mat hygiene are met with a complacent attitude not unlike buckling one’s seatbelt or wearing a helmet when riding a motorcycle.

But, the primary difference with staph skin infections – as opposed to seatbelt or helmet use – is that you are putting others at risk in addition to yourself.

If you want to endanger yourself, that’s one thing. But who gives you the right to endanger others?

I’ve written extensively on the common staph and its more dangerous cousin, the MRSA skin infections. But it appears that this is a topic that needs a bit more attention.

MRSA (methicillin-resistant staph aureus) is a super-bug (bacteria) that is not susceptible to common first-line antibiotics. The common version of this bacteria (staph aureus) is normally found almost everywhere (check your nose) and usually not a big deal for young healthy people. But due to the overuse of antibiotics, the common version got smart and mutated to a strain that – as you can see – is very aggressive, easily transmitted by contact, and hard to treat.

Unfortunately, just attacking MRSA with bigger guns (stronger antibiotics) gives it a chance to one day mutate into a “Godzilla” for which we may have no answer. So as doctors, we would prefer to stop its spread and contain it rather than treat it.

Wrestling (including all common grappling styles in MMA, Brazilian jiu jitsu, etc.) gyms are the perfect breeding grounds, and thus, they are ground zero. These facilities are usually kept very warm, have sweaty mats from intense training, and by definition, require close sustained bodily contact. In this setting, a scrape, pimple or simple hair bump can go bad very quickly.

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