Since it was widely reported this week that a drug-resistant staph has hit the gay community, some of the mainstream press and no small number of anti-gay media outlets have jumped on the most sensational parts of the story without thought to the pesky notions of actual fact, or reporting the full story.

In this light, GFN offers a brief overview of this important story to separate what we consider vital information from the salacious, and what simple things you can do to protect yourself from getting it in the first place.

As reported earlier this week, a new variety of staph bacteria, highly resistant to antibiotics, is spreading among gay men in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles.

The culprit is a form of MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a bug that was once confined to hospitalized patients but, since the late 1990s, has been circulating outside medical settings, afflicting anyone. 

The part of the story that made headlines, though, had to do with the high incidence in the gay community as studied by researchers at San Francisco General Hospital, who dubbed the worst of the staph USA300.

Health officials say USA300 is resistant to the antibiotics erythromycin, clindamycin, tetracycline, Cipro-like antibiotics and drugs in the penicillin family. But it is treatable with some antibiotics, like vancomycin, an antibiotic reserved for the most serious staph infections.  The concern from the medical community, though, is that these MSRA strains continue to evolve rendering more and more antibiotics ineffective.

Most MRSA infections are skin infections that may appear as pustules or boils which often are red, swollen, painful, or have pus or other drainage. These skin infections commonly occur at sites of visible skin trauma, such as cuts and abrasions, and areas of the body covered by hair (like the back of neck, groin, buttock, armpit, beard area of men).

How much worse is USA300 than the other dozen distinct varieties of MSRA? Toxic proteins carried by USA300 have been implicated in infections that destroy fingers and toes or cause the rare but frighteningly fast skin- and muscle-tissue destruction attributed popularly to "flesh-eating bacteria" - a condition known as necrotizing fasciitis.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the study estimated that 1 in 588 residents living within the Castro neighborhood 94114 zip code area is infected with USA300, resistant to six types of commonly used antibiotics.

This information prompted hysterical headlines that seemed to demonize the gay community, and for the anti-gay lobbyists, the very notion of sex between two men. 

The truth, however, is that USA300 is a dominant form of staph infection in much of the United States.  Not just gay men.

Health officials report it is commonly found in suburban housewives, executives, doctors, athletes and children, and in newborn nurseries. Yes, people with HIV infection seem especially prone to it, but it strikes people, regardless of their sexual orientation, who have no previous health problems.

MRSA infections used to be confined to hospitalized patients. But in the late 1990s, people began contracting them in community settings - in gyms, jails, schools and even at home. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculated last fall that drug-resistant staph was killing 19,000 Americans a year, even more than are dying of AIDS.

Its most disturbing trait, say researchers, is how easily it gets around, described in at least 44 states and is now spreading in European countries.

Soap and water: the cornerstone of controlling MRSA infection

The MRSA bacteria can be transmitted through direct skin-to-skin contact as well as through contact with contaminated surfaces. The bug is quite hardy and can survive on surfaces for hours or even weeks, depending on the environment.  It thrives in humid conditions, such as those found in gyms.

The good news is that it's pretty easy to avoid becoming infected with MRSA. Don't share towels at the gym and lay a fresh one down on any surfaces you sit or lay on so as not to pick up an earlier person's microbes. Follow your workout with a hot, soapy shower. Any soap will serve to dilute the bacteria; it doesn't have to be antibacterial. Wash your clothes frequently.

Transmission can also occur through sexual contact, and, as noted in the Bay Area Reporter, through the use of unclean sex toys. After any sexual activity, shower well right after; sex toys should be well cleaned to prevent the spread of other sexually transmitted diseases as well as MSRA. As previously mentioned, MRSA can hang out for long periods of time on clothes (including leather), so clean them well, and clean them frequently.

You can carry MRSA in your nose or on your skin for long periods of time without having any outward signs of infection. But you can also spread the bacteria from those sites to other parts of your body. Scratching may be enough to cause small breaks in the skin and allow an active infection to get going. So it's important to wash your hands on a regular basis to cut down on the possibility of spreading the bug around.