Germs Fly in Roller-Derby Games, Study Finds

Skaters swap skin bacteria during bouts

By Randy Dotinga

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, March 12 (HealthDay News) -- As roller-derby skaters bump and smack one another on the track, a new study finds that they're exchanging more than bruises: These combative women are also swapping countless bacteria that live on their skin.

Researchers who analyzed skin samples were able to distinguish among teams by the bacteria on the skaters' skin, and they could track how the bacteria moved between teams during a bout.

"The thing that was surprising was how different the teams' different bacteria were before they played, and how similar they became afterward," said study author James Meadow, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

Germs pass from person to person, from people to things and from people to animals all day long, he said, but it's usually harmless. "We pick them up from the environment, and we give them off to the environment," he said. "This study was a way to find out how that changes when we come into contact with other people."

For the study, published in the March 12 issue of the new journal PeerJ, researchers studied three roller-derby teams competing in a tournament: the Emerald City Roller Girls from Eugene, Ore.; the DC Roller Girls from Washington, D.C.; and the Silicon Valley Roller Girls from San Jose, Calif.

To obtain microbe samples, the researchers swabbed the skaters' upper arms, which are typically exposed before, during and after a game.

Each team's members had very similar bacteria, possibly because their players came from the same geographical places. "If we picked one of the players at random, I could tell you which team she played for," Meadow said.

But the bacterial makeup of the skin on their arms changed after skin-to-skin contact with other skaters. "It was difficult to tell the teams apart. They had mixed a lot of their skin bacteria," Meadow said.

Athletes can and do transmit potentially dangerous skin infections to one another, but it's not clear if the germs transmitted between these players could have made them sick, the researcher said. When it comes to the sharing of germs, Meadow said, "we don't know what impact that has or how long it lasts."

Nor is it clear exactly how many bacteria transferred among skaters as they collided and fought for track position in this heavy-duty contact sport.

Still, skin infections are nothing to dismiss. A "superbug" called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) can be transmitted between athletes on a football field and even through shared towels. MRSA is sometimes fatal.

What about other kinds of human contact, such as handshakes, kissing and sex? The risk of body-to-body bacteria transmission from those activities is another mystery, although it's known that the skin, mouth and vagina are home to unique communities of germs, Meadow said.

"The transmission could be at this level or more," he said, referring to the study findings. "One thing we can say for certain is that we're transferring things in all types of human contact" -- derby or no derby.

Dr. Pascal James Imperato, dean of the School of Public Health at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in New York City, said the study demonstrates how people from the same areas have similar kinds of bacteria on their skin.

Should people worry about touching each other?

Not generally, Imperato said. "There's no reason anyone should institute any kind of preventive measures because the majority of these bacteria are not pathogenic," he said. "They're garden-variety bacteria found on the skin of ordinary people. I don't think it's anything to worry about."

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Hand Sanitizers: Do They Help Stop All Germs?

Feb. 8, 2013 -- With winter cold and flu season in full swing -- and a new strain of norovirus circulating -- everyone's trying to dodge the bugs. Norovirus causes intestinal illness, and it's often the root of outbreaks at schools and in nursing homes.

The question is: How best to avoid infection? Thorough hand washing is typically recommended. But use of hand sanitizers is promoted, too.

However, a recent study found that staff in long-term care facilities who relied too much on hand sanitizers over hand washing actually reported more outbreaks of norovirus-related illness.

WebMD turned to the experts for perspective on what to do now.

What is the active ingredient in hand sanitizers?

Hand sanitizers have a form of alcohol, such as ethyl alcohol, as an active ingredient. It works as an antiseptic.

Other ingredients may include water, fragrance, and glycerin.

Which bugs can hand sanitizers prevent?

''Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are clearly a very useful and important method to prevent most bacterial and viral infections, with rare exceptions," says Aaron E. Glatt, MD, executive vice president of Mercy Medical Center, Rockville Centre, Long Island, N.Y. He is a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. 

Viruses cause colds and flu.

Hand sanitizers won't work, Glatt says, against the infection caused by C. difficile, a bacterium that can lead to life-threatening inflammation in the colon. 

What about the study finding more norovirus outbreaks with use of hand sanitizers?

"This study does not change my routine recommendation that people should use a hand sanitizer," Glatt says. He sees them as especially useful when water is not available.

In the study, published in the American Journal of Infection Control, CDC researchers looked at the use of hand sanitizers by the staff in 91 long-term care facilities. In those where the staff were equally or more likely to use the hand sanitizers over soap and water for routine hand hygiene, the chance of an outbreak was nearly six times greater.

"It's one study,” says Glatt.

More research is needed, he and other experts say.

So, is hand washing better than hand sanitizers to prevent infection spread?

Both are important, say Glatt and Brian Sansoni, spokesman for the American Cleaning Institute.

"Soap and water are number one," says Sansoni. "Hand sanitizers are a very effective additional tool."

The sanitizers are meant to supplement, not replace, good old-fashioned soap and water washing, Sansoni says.

The CDC agrees. It says that for norovirus, washing hands is your best prevention, especially after using the bathroom, changing a diaper, and before eating and doing food prep. Sanitizers may help, but “they are not a substitute for washing with soap and water.”

They also can be used if soap and water aren’t available, the CDC says.

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People Can Emit Flu Germs in Air Up to 6 Feet Away, Study Finds

THURSDAY, Jan. 31 (HealthDay News) -- People suffering from the flu can give off small virus particles into the air at greater distances than previously thought, putting the health care workers who treat these patients at increased risk for getting the virus themselves, researchers report.

The investigators, from Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina, suggest that more studies are needed on how the flu is spread. Infection-control guidelines for health care providers may also need to be updated to help these workers protect their health.

The study was published in the current edition of the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

"Our study offers new evidence of the natural emission of influenza and may provide a better understanding of how to best protect health care providers during routine care activities," the researchers, led by Dr. Werner Bischoff, wrote in the report.

For the study, Bischoff's team screened 94 patients with flu symptoms who were admitted to the emergency department or inpatient care unit of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center during the 2010-2011 flu season. Health care providers at this hospital are required to get a flu shot, the researchers pointed out in a Wake Forest news release.

The investigators also collected air samples within one foot, three feet and six feet of the patients screened. As the air samples were taken, no aerosol-generating procedures -- such as bronchoscopy, intubation or CPR -- were performed. The researchers also recorded the number of times the patients coughed or sneezed and rated the severity of these symptoms. The patients also answered questions about their condition and how long they had been sick.

The study authors found that 65 percent of the patients tested positive for the flu. Of these people, 43 percent released particles containing the virus into the air. Those who emitted the highest levels of the flu virus into the air reported having the worst flu-like symptoms. These patients also had the highest viral loads in their collected samples.

Most of the flu virus found in the air samples was contained in small particles up to six feet away from the infected patients. Although concentrations of the virus decreased with distance, the researchers noted that at this range health care providers may still be exposed to infectious dosages of the flu.

Bischoff and colleagues also said that some patients were what they called "super emitters," and gave off up to 32 times more virus than the other patients. These people, they concluded, may be more likely to pass the flu on to others.

Dr. Caroline Breese Hall, from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Rochester, N.Y., pointed out in an accompanying journal editorial that the findings "question the traditional belief that influenza is primarily spread by close contact with an infected person or by direct contact with infectious secretions."

And Dr. William Schaffner, chair of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, also commented on the study. "Influenza vaccination, although not perfect, is the best tool we have to protect health care workers -- and their patients -- from influenza illness," he said in the news release. Schaffner was not involved with the study.

More information

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has more about the flu.

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