In: Biology
The sports saga with MRSA continues. A recent article in the NY Times about college sports described “To prevent teammates from sharing towels to wipe their faces or arms on the sideline, trainers have sometimes employed a small army of interns who scoop up any used towel so it can quickly be placed in the laundry. Jim Thornton, the athletic trainer at Clarion University in Pennsylvania, said his teams had begun using chemically treated towelettes that are about half the size of a standard towel and are discarded after each use. The expense may be worthwhile. One study of high school football players concluded that sharing a towel makes the chance of a MRSA infection eight times more likely.” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/06/sports/the-never-ending-battle-against-sports-hidden-foe.html
They are talking about community acquired MRSA, which is the same as subtype USA300. What genes made this MRSA able to be transmitted via towels and why? Would you expect nonMRSA S. aureus to be equally transmitted? Why or why not?
Community acquired MRSA refers to acquisition of the infection by a set of population indulged in similar kind of activity, as in sports persons over here. These community acquired infections are transmitted by a specific type of microbe which is MRSA in this case. Since the microbe experiences a specific set of ambient conditions, it is very likely that a set of mutations leading to changes in the genetic make up of this strain favours this acquisition. Since the sportsperson are highly likely to release huge amount of sweat and consequently, salts, from their body, it is possible that this strain of MRSA is salt-resistent secondary to a mutation making it resistant to various ions and hypertonic solution. This enhances the chances of survival of this strain, hence infection.
However, it is not very likely that the MRSA and S. aureus infections might be linked, since the survival benefit of MRSA seems to be different from the S. aureus strain. Whereas MRSA seems to be able to survive in highly unfavorable conditions as well. S. aureus fails to do so. Hence, the two infections seem not to be equally transmitted.