Beaches harbor deadly MRSA

The superbug known as multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has been found not only in hospitals and communities, but now also at public beaches, researchers announced yesterday at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

Marilyn Roberts and colleagues from the University of Washington has for the first time identified methicillin-resistant Staph aureus (MRSA) in marine water and beach sand from seven public beaches on the Puget Sound.

The researchers detected Staph bacteria on nine of 10 public beaches they tested and found seven of 13 Staph aureus samples from five beaches multidrug resistant.

About 30% of healthy people harbor Staph aureus. While most carriers are able to survive infection, the infection proves fatal in about 20 percent of people who get MRSA into their bloodstream and 40 percent of those who develop MRSA pneumonia. The bacteria can also kill people with severe influenza resulting from H1N1 or swine flu.

This is not the first time that MRSA is found in ocean water and in Beach sand.

Dr. Lisa Plano of the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine reported similar findings in Feb 2009 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Plano and colleagues studied 1,300 adult bathers at a South Florida beach and found Staphylococcus aureus in 37 percent of the ocean water samples and the antibiotic-resistant strain of the bug in 3 percent of these samples. Beach sand can also spread the deadly bacteria, according to the researchers.

Live Science cited Plano as saying "people should shower before and after going in the water. And, it is wise to avoid the beach if you have an open wound."

Another recent study published in the June 18, 2009 issue of Water Research also reported that Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) were found in beach seawater and sand samples collected from Avalon, and Doheny Beach in California.

K M Goodwin and M Pobuda from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratories (AOML) in Miami Fl found S. aureus in 60 to 76 percent of samples of beach seawater and 53 to 79 percent of sand samples.

MRSA is found on the other hand in 2 to 9 percent and 0 to 12 percent of samples of seawater and sand respectively, according to the study report.

By David Liu davidl at foodconsumer dot org