Articles
MRSA: Protecting student athletes
If you suspect an MRSA infection, what should you do?
Content
What is MRSA?
What does an MRSA infection look like?
How does MRSA spread?
What can schools do to prevent MRSA infections?
What can athletes do to prevent MRSA infections?
If you have a skin infection, what should you do?
How are MRSA skin infections treated?
When can the athlete return to play?
How does MRSA spread?
MRSA is spread by:
- Skin-to-skin contact. MRSA can be transmitted from one person to another through skin-to-skin contact. While MRSA skin infections can occur in participants of many types of sports, they're much more likely to occur in contact sports — such as football, wrestling and rugby.
- Touching contaminated objects. If drainage from an MRSA skin infection comes into contact with an object — such as a towel, weight training equipment or a shared jar of ointment — the next person who touches that object may become infected with MRSA bacteria.
