LI pol to draft MRSA prevention bill

State Sen. Lee Zeldin said Monday he would draft legislation that would standardize cleanliness practices in high school wrestling and set education standards on the spread of bacterial infections such as MRSA.

Zeldin (R-Shirley) met with Suffolk wrestling coaches, administrators and doctors in a roundtable discussion at his district office in Hauppauge.

"There was consensus on issues affecting both education and cleanliness," Zeldin said. "Certain standards can be imposed across the entire state."

Possibilities for the legislation included standardizing the type of cleanser used on mats, mandating that every school holding a tournament have functioning shower facilities, and insisting mats be cleaned before practice and meets and in between matches. Additionally, coaches and administrators called for education standards for parents, coaches, referees and physicians who clear athletes to play. Stressing hygiene on a personal level, they said, was key.

"There's no question you can temporarily kill all the bacteria on a non-living surface," said Dr. Philip Schrank, a member of the state Section XI (Suffolk County) safety committee. "The problem is that you're now putting living organisms back on the mat. . . . The second you put the kid who is a MRSA carrier on the mat, the mat has MRSA on it."

MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, has been known to afflict athletes involved in wrestling, football, lacrosse and other contact sports. The legislation would also look to curb instances of ringworm, impetigo and other infections.

The meeting comes more than two months after Hauppauge wrestler Nick Mauriello came down with MRSA and a second, related infection that put him in a coma and nearly cost him his life.

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"The team, the community and all of Long Island wrestling was in tune with this boy fighting for his life," Hauppauge coach Chris Messina said. "[It's] over something we can deal with and we can treat."

Zeldin said the next step was getting a state Assembly co-sponsor for the bill and meeting with representatives from the New York State Public High School Athletic Association, the state's governing body for high school athletics. He plans to introduce it during the current legislative session, which ends in June. A number of preventive measures, such as more extensive skin checks, are fairly simple and not cost-prohibitive, Zeldin said.

"There should be nothing political about an issue like this," he said. "[It's] common-sense legislation that protects student-athletes who may be exposed to certain risks right now."

The regulations, coaches said, would be welcome.

"We can use the help," Floyd wrestling coach Tony Phelan said. "There's only so much [one person] can do. It takes the coaches, it takes the referees, the parents to all stick together on it."