An infection is on the rise in local athletes. As the Healthline 3 Team
discovered, they're called staph infections and they can be quite dangerous.
Which is why one local doctor says everyone needs to protect themselves.
"I'm thinking just a pimple it'll go away and that's nothing."
But it wasn't nothing.
"I was feeling a little bit sick too, kind of like, I don't know, maybe a fever
or something was coming on."
What Gladiator Maurice Bryant had thought was just a pimple was actually a staph
infection.
"It used to be thought of as a hospital acquired infection and we've seen it
more now outside in our community and in my realm with athletes," explains Dr.
Michael Gunter.
"Anybody can really get it, anybody in the community that has a cut on their
skin, and that can introduce the bacteria to it," says Dr. Gunter.
The infections are showing up more frequently in athletes because they have more
skin to skin contact.
"It's been kind of embarrassing, I'll tell you that though, because I had to
have my own towels, my own soap, stuff like that," said Bryant.
Dr. Gunter says staph infections can be dangerous, so make sure you pay
attention. According to him, if you start to see increased redness around the
area, get fevers or the chills, you need to see a physician right away.
Back on the field, Maurice says after nearly two weeks and antibiotics, his
infection is healing. Dr. Gunter says he's seen the infection in all types of
athletes from wrestlers to baseball players and football players. He adds that
we do harbor staph externally on our bodies, but it's when it enters the human
body that it can cause infection.
