I have a confession to make. I am a germophobe.
I am guilty of exhibiting all the related neuroses: carrying hand sanitizer at all times; using a paper towel to open the doors of public restrooms; even backing away from people who display the first sign of the sniffles.
Unfortunately, with the changing weather and the increasing levels of pre-finals stress, most of us are more susceptible to sickness.
So, imagine my dismay when I learned that a new bacterium called Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, or "mersa" for short, is beginning to make its presence known across the United States.
Mersa is a form of staph, which is a bacterium commonly carried in the nose or on the skin. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, staph is one of the leading causes of minor skin infections in the United States and usually results in less serious complications, such as pimples or boils -- not exactly a huge cause for concern.
In the past, the people most likely to contract serious staph infections had underlying health conditions, such as diabetes or kidney disease, being hooked up to a medical IV, recent hospitalizations or recent exposure to an antimicrobial agent. Often these cases could be successfully treated with penicillin-based antibiotics.
Not anymore. Mersa is resistant to many forms of traditional antibiotics, which makes fighting off the illness a long and draining process (although there have been cases where victims have not recovered at all).
Serious cases can enter the bloodstream and cause massive infections. And what's worse, it is showing up in healthy people who have not had any contact with hospitals, prisons or any of the places where staph commonly occurs.
In fact, it is beginning to haunt many of the places we healthy people frequent. Colorado has seen cases originating in health clubs.
According to Dr. Stefanie Schroeder, chief of medical staff at the ASU Student Health and Wellness Center, sharing towels, athletic equipment or personal items that contact the skin can spread the bug. This means that all of the treadmills and elliptical trainers that see heavy use at our own Student Recreation Complex could potentially be crawling with antibiotic-resistant staph ... eww.
Schroeder, who is also an infectious disease specialist in Phoenix, estimated that we have a 50 percent resistance rate to methicillin. She said that while Student Health does not track rates of mersa, they do "know of a couple which have not responded to the antibiotics which staph has traditionally been susceptible to."
Fortunately, there are steps you can take to keep those evil germies away. According to CDC, you need to keep your hands clean by washing them thoroughly with soap and water (especially under the nails), keep cuts and abrasions clean and covered with a clean bandage until healed and avoiding contact with "other people's wounds or material contaminated from wounds."
All of these steps will help keep you healthy and ready for those upcoming finals.
Julie Messner is a journalism senior. Reach her at julie.messner@asu.edu.
