Staph infection becoming more common among local athletes
Reported November 06, 2007
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.