Elizabeth Erwin
News Editor
eerwin1@murraystate.edu
In the days following a fraternity philanthropy event, several students experienced symptoms related to staph infections.
Sorority members compete annually in the Lambda Chi Alpha Watermelon Bust, an event where attendees participate in a series of games in a large mud pit. This year’s event, held on Saturday, Sept. 22, was not out of the ordinary from years past.
Each sorority had a team that competed against each other in a watermelon crawl dance, tug-of-war, over under, watermelon toss and crab walk, all of which required students to be in close proximity to one another in the muddy water.
However, participants said the muddy water contained debris from overnight storms, which became an issue after several of them decided to go barefoot during the games.
The close physical contact combined with open wounds caused by the debris, created favorable conditions for the transmission of staph between attendees.
“Staphylococcus aureus, called ‘staph’ for short, is one of the most common germs found on people’s skin and in their noses,” according to the Center for Disease Control. “Most of the time it doesn’t do any harm. But sometimes staph gets into the body and causes an infection.”
Michael Cooper, a microbiology professor at Murray State, said staph becomes problematic when it goes past the surface of the body.
“When it is just doing its thing on our skin or even in our nasal passages and doesn’t have access to blood or past the skin, it won’t cause infection,” Cooper said. “If someone has it on their skin and gets, say, an abrasion – with S. aureus on the skin it could take the opportunity and become infectious in that breach of our primary passive defense system.”
Once a staph infection occurs, the infection itself can vary in severity from a minor skin problem to a life-threatening condition.
“My knee had several pimple-like bumps on it and my knee was warm to the touch which is typically a sign of infection,” a student, who requested to remain anonymous, said. “My knee also had been feeling weaker and had been in pain.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, some symptoms of skin infections caused by staph bacteria include red and swollen boils, a painful rash, skin redness, swelling and blisters that can often be accompanied with a fever and nausea.
The student who noticed the pimple-like bumps on their skin decided to visit Fast Pace Connect on campus. However, the student’s experience at Fast Pace was less than favorable.
“My experience at Fast Pace on campus wasn’t the best,” the student said. “There was only one nurse to see all of the students, and there was no physician to actually see. Instead, it was a nurse practitioner who was seeing me through a video camera. It just didn’t feel professional and I felt like they maybe could have diagnosed me just because I thought I had staph. The whole experience was so impersonal and very rushed and all-in-all very weird.”
After looking back on it, the student said they regretted not going to another healthcare provider.
“I regret not going to the normal Fast Pace or Primary Care because I feel like I would have gotten a more definite answer than what I got from the on-campus Fast Pace,” the student said. “I would rather pay the larger bill to know for sure if I was sick or not. Fast Pace just felt like they were just sticking me with a prescription and hoped it fixed my problem.”
Another student, who also asked to remain anonymous, said the wait times were long at Fast Pace as the on-campus health provider was flooded with students exposed to staph.
“I went to the on-campus Fast Pace, it was super slow,” the student said. “They only had one provider and you had to see the doctor on a camera.”
The student also said they felt like they weren’t given relevant information about staph.
“They just said ‘Don’t touch it,’” the student said.
The News also spoke with students who went to Primary Care Medical Center and Murray Medical Associates to be checked out.
Treatments for staph can include antibiotics and even the drainage of the infected wound.
“It is important to take your antibiotic until it is finished, even if you are feeling better,” according to the CDC. “If you don’t, the staph germ may become resistant to the antibiotic.”
Staph cannot be spread through the air. Instead, it is usually spread through direct contact, whether it be person-to-person or through inanimate objects.
According to the Mayo Clinic, “because staph bacteria are so hardy, they can live on inanimate objects such as pillowcases or towels long enough to transfer to the next person who touches them.”
Cooper said students don’t have to go out of their way to prevent the spread of staph.
“Normal handwashing and polite protocols, sneezing into your elbow, that kind of thing are generally sufficient,” Cooper said. “Maybe ironically showering less frequently can inhibit the colonization of ‘new arrivals’ as your skin is already well-colonized. That’s not an excuse to be stinky, though.”
Keeping wounds covered until they heal can also help prevent the spread of staph, according to the Mayo Clinic.
If you feel like you might have been exposed to infectious staph, go to the doctor if you have an area of red, irritated skin that is painful to the touch, pus-filled blisters, accompanied by a fever.