According to the Center for Disease Control, "Outbreaks of CA-MRSA have been associated with sports that require physical contact and result in frequent damage to skin (3,4) and with crowded settings (e.g., correctional facilities, military settings), where access to hygiene measures is limited (5,6)." This would be our local indoor climbing gyms.

And I'll add, to any gyms that don't at least occasionally clean their holds with ACID or anti-bacterial soap, shame on you!

Are you serious?

It's nothing negative for gyms, but just a heads up for people to be aware of the possibility. Any kind of gym is a breeding ground for bacteria of all sorts.

We can all wash our hands before and after climbing. Maybe wear pants. I know I am always scraping up my knees on the texture painted walls.

The reality is that this is spreading at an exponential rate, and if hasn't been in your gym yet, at the rate it's going it wil be soon.

what I am saying is that I don't belive climbing gyms carry as much risk as the sports described in their report. maybe I am wrong, who is to say...
...
why would Indoor climbing holds be any different then Outdoor climbing holds? at least indoor climbing holds get washed sometimes. I've climbed at many outdoor sport caves that have never seen water or soap.

anyway it would be impossible for any climbing gym to do much in regards to prevention other then warn people and encourage people to wash their hands. with holds, ropes, rental shoes and chalk bags, harnesses, etc...how could you clean everything on a daily basis and remain in business. you couldn't.

Although the investigations described in this report did not determine the roots of MRSA transmission definitively, three factors might have contributed to transmission in these outbreaks. First, competitive sports participants might develop abrasions and other skin trauma, which could facilitate entry of pathogens. Even in sports with less direct contact, protective clothing can be hot and might chafe skin, resulting in abrasions and lacerations. Fencers reported developing skin rashes frequently under protective clothing. Second, some sports for which MRSA infections have been reported involve frequent physical contact among players (e.g., football and wrestling). S. aureus and other skin flora can be transmitted easily from person to person with direct contact. Third, sports such as fencing have limited skin-to-skin contact but require multiple pieces of protective clothing and equipment, which often might be shared. The use of shared equipment or other personal items that are not cleaned or laundered between users could be a vehicle for S. aureus transmission.

the report talks about athletes sharing protective equipment, clothing, pads, headgear, etc...and coming in close contact with eachother (football players and wrestlers). do climbing holds pose the same potentail threat?

In swabs of medicine balls, for example, Tierno found samples of community-acquired MRSA, a strain of staph resistant to some antibiotics. "

And I'll add, to any gyms that don't at least occasionally clean their holds with acid or anti-bacterial soap, shame on you!

Don't climb if you get a flapper or a cut. Don't climb if you have a pustule or open wound.

I can see following this advice in a gym, but cuts and flappers are a part of the bidness otherwise? Don't see how one could follow this proscription and still be a climber?

Cheers
DMT

drrock-

I can't help but just clarify that I have never proposed disinfecting the gym as a plausible solution. I would rather promote education, CA-MRSA awareness, and simple good hygeine. Do these solutions seem alarmist to you?

drrock-

I can't help but just clarify that I have never proposed disinfecting the gym as a plausible solution. I would rather promote education, CA-MRSA awareness, and simple good hygeine. Do these solutions seem alarmist to you?

Also, I think you should research a bit about handwashing. Simple good hygiene has been *proven* to reduce your risk of infection. Read any Center for Disease Control report on CA-MRSA. Even the most basic info mentions this.

Matterunomama,

In 6 years it has grown to be the leading cause of soft tissue infections in emergency rooms across the country.

That is exponential.

. As for CA-MRSA pneumonia, I definitely think it's good for us all who have a history with this stuff to be more sensitive when we get the flu.

As for the risk of spreading CA-MRSA in an athletic facility that uses shared equipment, you should re-read the article. If anything, it defends tha argument that it is indeed possible, and that awareness is always good. Awareness keeps all facilites safer. It's something we should be aware of everywhere.

I never wanted to have an alarmist tone-- I actually wonder if you reread my posts if you would still find then alarmist. I respect being informed, and that's really my intent with all of this.

anyway--- I certainly would have found this information on this thread invaluble had I read it before getting really sick.

It's the possibility that this information could help someone else from getting sick unneccessarily that I post things here.

I didn't study math any more than I had to, so you may be right about the technical mathmatical meaning of exponential. At any rate, I was being a bit snippy in disputing Megans choice of the word, when she was probably only using it in its casual common use of "fast".She was extremely gracious in her reply and of course her motivation in posting is kind and helpful as well. I think I'll keep my degree, though-Yale Med hates to give those damn things back. So tedious to change the registrars record.

I can't speak for the medical community as a whole but I do know that the problem is well-known, its all over both primary care and dermatology journals. Basically, if you have something that isn't going away you should insist on a culture. I work in a private office, so we don't have an ER and I don't know how the problem is represented there. there have been outbreaks in sports teams, facilities, etc, but we also see cases such as an elderly woman with recurrent infections, a teenage boy who does no sports, young women who are exquisitely clean and visit the tanning salon but not the gym..The rule is never assume is someone is "low risk" We culture, we treat (sometimes this involves changing the original antibiotic) and everybody we have treated gets better, although they sometimes have another episode. We tell them the same advice that healthcare people follow-wash yourself, wash common eqipment (alcohol wipes) and be aware. If they are on a sports team they should tell their coach. In our experience there is no problem within families with contagion if they follow normal hygiene. If they have had recurrent episodes we have them wash with hibiclens or another antibacterial. Maybe there is someone out there who works in a more urgent/emergent setting who could weigh in on the kind of complications that we don't see in our office, that are of concern to you.