Stop Staph Infections with Good Hygiene

The drug-resistant staph infection MRSA has made headlines recently, but it should not trigger panic or irrational fear.

"This isn't something just floating around in the air," Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told members of Congress on Wednesday.

It takes close contact - things like sharing towels and razors, or rolling on the wrestling mat or football field with open scrapes, or not bandaging cuts - to become infected with the staph germ called MRSA outside of a hospital, she said. But MRSA is preventable largely by common-sense hygiene, Gerberding stressed.

"Soap and water is the cheapest intervention we have, and it's one of the most effective," she told a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Read more

If you stay out of hospitals, wash your hands, and cover your cuts, you can probably cross MRSA off your list of things to worry about.