Men’s Health and Locker Rooms: The Killer in the Locker Room

Surprisingly, the greatest source of hope in the fight against MRSA may come from the most common defense: soap and water. By making sure to wash their hands thoroughly and by keeping all cuts well disinfected and bandaged, most people can avoid spreading or contracting MRSA. "It's not going away," Dr. Lowy says, "but we have a chance of slowing it until new antibiotics, or even a vaccine, are created."

The NFL has begun sponsoring hygiene workshops for players and is encouraging trainers to disinfect hot tubs and showers regularly, according to Steve Antonopolus, ATC, head of the NFL's Trainers' Association. "There's a potential for MRSA to be everywhere in the locker room," he says. "Around trash cans, in cleats -- everywhere."

Meanwhile, the IDSA has been lobbying Congress to treat MRSA like a terrorist threat. It proposes a "10 Most Wanted" list of bacterial infections, so that any drug company that goes after one would be rewarded with a "bounty" of tax breaks and extended patents. One Florida company, Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, is already in phase three of clinical trials of a staph vaccine, which would immunize recipients. A request for FDA approval is expected by the end of 2005.

"At this point, we project it for use only among high-risk candidates, like kidney patients," says Nabi spokesman Mark Soufleris. "But potentially, it could be used for millions of people." Best of all, Soufleris points out, it could take a tremendously long time before MRSA develops resistance to the vaccine. "Antibiotics attack the bacteria at one point of entry, but our vaccine creates antibodies that attack at multiple points."

Dr. Gilbert likes what he's heard about the Nabi vaccine. "Won't that be great, to get a shot and never worry about staph again?" he says. Till then, he urges, do what your mom always told you: "Change your clothes, wash your hands, and no roughhousing."