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YMCA Visitor Had Staph, Members Told

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By GEOFF FOX, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 7, 2007

TRINITY - Members of the James P. Gills Family YMCA were notified recently that someone who used the building's Youth Activity Center had contracted the potentially deadly MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant staph infection.
Mary Gentry Roberts, district vice president of the YMCAs of West Pasco, wouldn't say this week whether the victim was an adult or child.

She said the YMCA was notified of the person's condition on Nov. 29, and notification letters were sent to its members that day.

She said it was the first case of MRSA associated with the Trinity YMCA that she knows of.

"Our protocol is that when we find out that someone who has this has been in our facility, whether it's MRSA, or a severe cold, or lice, or something highly contagious, we do due diligence to notify our members as soon as possible," Roberts said.

"We wanted to inform everybody of the situation."

She said the person will not be allowed back into the YMCA until officials are notified by the person's doctor that they are no longer contagious.

Officially known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA has made headlines in recent months.

In October, MRSA was blamed for the deaths of children in Mississippi, New Hampshire and Virginia. Closer to home, three students at Tampa Prep and another at Durant High School recently were diagnosed with the infection, which doesn't respond to penicillin or most other antibiotics.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 18,650 people died during MRSA-related hospital stays in 2005.

Symptoms are typically skin infections, such as abscesses, boils and other pus-filled lesions. MRSA is most common among people with weakened immune systems who are in hospitals or other health care facilities.

In a letter to local health departments, Russell Eggert, director of the Division of Disease Control at the Florida Department of Health, stressed that staph infections have been around forever.

"In particular," Eggert wrote, "I would like to help direct attention away from schoolchildren as a high-risk group - because they are not - and towards practical prevention measures for everyone."

Such measures include:

•Washing hands frequently.

•Providing soap and towels in school rest rooms.

•Using caution when engaging in activity that could lead to cuts and scratches.

•Washing cuts and scratches with soap and water, then keeping the wounds clean and dry.

•Promptly treating skin infections and keeping them covered.

•Avoiding contact sports if you have a skin infection, unless the lesions can be securely covered.

•Routinely cleaning locker rooms and sports equipment with disinfectant.

At the Trinity YMCA, Roberts said workers are careful about "what we sanitize and when we sanitize it."

"We were aware this was out there and we're knowledgeable about it, but we're not the CDC, so we tell our members to go to their Web site and make sure they know how it can be contracted and how to protect themselves," she said. The CDC Web site is www.cdc.gov.

"You just don't know. People come and go, and they have interaction with other people in their lives, and you never know what can come of that.

"We have 13,000 people in our building."

Reporter D'Ann Lawrence White contributed to this report. Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 948-4217 or gfox@tampatrib.com.

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