MRSA, a common cause of skin infections transmitted by close skin-to-skin contact, may also be an important disease source for men who have sex with men.
A study by Diep and colleagues published in the Annals of Internal Medicine (January 2008) found that infection with multi-drug resistant methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is common among men who have sex with men. MRSA infection did not seem to be related to HIV infection.
The study involved data from hospitals in San Francisco and Boston and found a higher incidence of infection with a particular multi-drug resistant strain of MRSA (USA300) in the population of men who have sex with men than in the general populations of those areas.
USA300 is a strain of community-associated MRSA, not seen before 2000, that is now widely spread through North American and Europe. USA300 is resistant not only to methicillin, but to a number of other drugs as well. USA300 commonly causes skin infections but can cause serious infection including necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating disease), sepsis, endocarditis and pneumonia, although these types of infection are rare. Infections occurs mostly among healthy people living in the community.
In San Francisco, MRSA infection most commonly involved abscesses or cellulitis of areas in the buttocks, genitals or perineum. The higher proportion of infection in these areas suggests that MRSA can be spread through sexual contact, although further study is required to validate the assocation between sexual contact and MRSA transmission.
Read more about MRSA:
Methicillin Resistant Staph: Superbug Infections
Staph and Methicillin Resistance
Measures to Reduce MRSA in Sports
Emergence of Multidrug-Resistant, Community-Associated, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Clone USA300 in Men Who Have Sex with Men
