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Tackling community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in collegiate football players following implementation of an anti-MRSA programme
  1. S Scott Sutton1,
  2. Jason J Stacy2,
  3. James Mensch3,
  4. Toni Torres-McGehee3,
  5. Charles L Bennett1
  1. 1Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Sciences, South Carolina College of Pharmacy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
  2. 2Department of Family Medicine, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
  3. 3Athletic Training Program, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr S Scott Sutton, Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Sciences, South Carolina College of Pharmacy, University of South Carolina, 715 Sumter Street, Columbia, SC 29208, USA; sutton{at}sccp.sc.edu

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Competitive football players’ safety has become an important concern at the high school, collegiate and professional level and warrants attention.1–4 From 2003 to 2008, five players at our institution developed clinically significant community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) skin infections requiring hospitalisation and intravenous antibiotics. In 2008, the University of South Carolina team instituted anti-MRSA precautions based on recommendations made by the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) (box 1). In an attempt to understand if guidelines recommended by the CDC resulted in low MRSA colonisation rates, we randomly selected players on a Division I collegiate football programme to evaluate colonisation for MRSA obtained from nares, helmets and shoulder pads. Inclusion criteria were age 18 or older and current team member. Exclusion criteria were presence of skin infection, receiving antibiotics or hospitalisation in the prior month. The study received IRB approval and informed consent was obtained from study participants. A research assistant or team physician obtained specimens from the nares, helmet and shoulder pads with a cotton-tipped swab from …

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Footnotes

  • Correction notice This paper has been amended since it was published Online First. There was an error in the title and also “aureus” was mispelt.

  • Contributors SS, JS, JM, TTM and CB contributed to the research including: (1) conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content and (3) final approval of the version to be published.

  • Funding The study was funded by the University of South Carolina.

  • Competing interests None.

  • Patient consent Obtained.

  • Ethics approval University of South Carolina IRB.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.