Heather Little-White, Ph.D., Contributed

Getting close with your sexual partner where you share everything including personal items like towels may mean that you may be set up to contract bacteria that results in deaths which may surpass the AIDS toll. The potentially deadly infection is the drug-resistant staph 'super bug' called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA.

The lethal strain of staph causes skin boils, fatal pneumonia and life- threatening infections. Common staph is found on the skin and in the nostrils without causing illness. However, the drug-resistant strain is a flesh-eating bacterium which causes painful skin lesions which resemble spider bites and can be red, swollen and filled with pus. The pus is loaded with MRSA bugs which make it highly contagious, making it easy to spread from one part of the body to another.

Blood poisoning

MRSA does not always cause skin lesions but may cause a deadly pneumonia or blood infections and may have the same fatal effect as toxic-shock syndrome, a type of blood poisoning. The infection can be spread by skin-to-skin contact, using whirlpool baths or sharing contaminated items with an infected person, especially one with an open wound.

Central to reducing the spread of this strain of staph is cleanliness. Though MRSA has been in hospitals for about 30 years, it usually occurs among persons with a weakened immune system such as elderly patients with underlying conditions and patients who have had surgery. The drug-resistant staphylococcus bacterium is a 'new' bug, more dangerous than hospital staph and resistant to the entire penicillin family and other first line drugs.

Heavy antibiotics

Stefan Lovgren writing for National Geographic News posits that heavy use of antibiotics in Western medicine has resulted in these staph developing resistance to antibiotics. MedicineNet.com claims that many people get better after having their boils or abscesses cut open and drained. MRSA usually leaves a nasty scar.

The infection has spread far beyond its traditional institutional setting such as hospitals and has worked its way into prisons, day care centres, schools and other community settings. School athletes may be vulnerable because of cuts and scrapes, bodily contact and the sharing of equipment and at times poor hygiene in gyms and other athletic facilities. Staph is now affecting healthy children, athletes and others with no connection to these institutions.

Older people

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association staph may be killing more than 19,000 people in the United States each year. The study revealed that infection rates were highest among people older than 65 and among African Americans, many of whom live in urban areas where the infection is found to be higher.

A CDC study showed that the antibiotic resistant staph caused pneumonia in 17 people, killing five during the 2006 flu season. At the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey a golf caddie kept getting abscesses on his neck and when he went to the hospital it was discovered that the infections were linked to abrasions from the man's golf bag strap.

In another case, a man in his 40s found that his severe back pain was due to a severe staph infection in his spinal cord which caused permanent paralysis. Thirty-year-old Tamarahad a severe staph infection which had attacked her lungs, blood and bones and made it difficult for her to walk. She picked up the infection from using the towel of her fiancé, a professional football player.

Guidelines

All is not lost if you develop MRSA. The CDC advises that

You should see your doctor immediately if you have an infected wound or pus-filled boil.

Carefully follow your doctor's advice on how to care for the wound. Advise any other doctor whom you may see that you have an antibiotic-resistant infection.

Skin infections, especially those with pus, should be covered with clean, dry bandages as pus easily spreads the infection to others.

If you are infected, advise family members and other close contacts to wash hands frequently with soap and warm water. Be sure to scrub hands and fingers while washing with soap and water.

Do no share personal items that may have come in contact with an infection. These items include towels, rags, razors and clothing.

Wash bed linen, towels and clothing in hot water and anti-bacterial soap. Dry these in the sun.

Take all medication as prescribed, even when you feel better.

Your doctor may give you antibiotics for a skin infection but be alert for signs of treatment failure. You may get new boils, sores or infection and your fever may get worse, be sure to call your doctor.

While the temptation may be hard to resist in getting sexually close in your relationships, be careful about sharing personal items if there are signs of a sore or wound or bronchial infection.

Names changed for privacy.