Schools clean up after MRSA scare

The latest MRSA wrestling scare on Long Island has prompted some high schools and wrestling leagues to buy often-pricey sanitation devices that rid mats and shoes of harmful germs, but there's a long way to go before such practices become the norm.

The trend hasn't caught on all over Long Island and is not in use at the state tournament, but disinfectant fogging machines, foot mats and UV-light sterilizers slowly are being integrated into wrestling rooms. The impetus, some programs say, comes from Hauppauge wrestler Nick Mauriello's bout with two possibly wrestling-related illnesses: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, known as MRSA, and Lemierre's syndrome, a resultant blood vessel inflammation that threatened his life. Though there's no evidence Mauriello's illness came specifically from wrestling mats, if improperly sanitized, they and other athletic equipment can serve as a breeding ground for MRSA, ringworm and impetigo, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Foggers emit a disinfectant spray that reaches places hand-spraying can't. "We can't get in creaks, crevices and on the [wrestling room] walls,'' said Amityville athletic director Ron Forman. "We use something that looks like a bug spray machine to spray the walls every day. The fogger can get in there where the spray can't get."

Forman said that though he's had his eye on the foggers for some time, Mauriello's case has helped underline the need for the machine and has speeded the process of convincing the district the machine is a necessity. He hopes to get Amityville the machine by the end of the school year.

The introduction of sanitizing equipment is finding its way into individual athletic programs, but there is still no statewide mandate for their use. In fact, at the high school state tournament, held on Feb. 25-26 in Albany, sanitation protocol was limited to mops, squeegees and disinfecting liquids.

Surprisingly, state wrestling chairman Marty Sherman, the highest ranked wrestling representative in the state public high school athletics governing body said he is unfamiliar with foggers. "I don't even know what those are," Sherman said. "We don't have anything like that'' at the state tournament. "I wouldn't mind looking it up."

Marcia Haise, co-chairwoman of section XI of New York-USA Wrestling, a youth wrestling organization that is not affiliated with Suffolk's governing body for athletics, has been responsible for an uptick in the use of higher-level sanitation devices -- in her case, disinfectant foot mats called Germinators, which she came across in a wrestling magazine after Mauriello fell ill. Haise's organization bought 10 of the foot mats for a youth tournament in Bay Shore last month and subsequently sold eight to Bay Shore, East Islip and Clarke high schools, keeping the other two, she said. The two-day Bay Shore event attracted 686 athletes, ages 7-14.

"Because we were having such a large tournament, if we could demonstrate this working, or at least helping, in the view of individuals watching, it would be a positive for us and for wrestling," said Haise, who is also a high school referee. "I was horrified . . . . All they did was [mop] the mat, like they were dusting it."

Daren Mizner, an Idaho-based inventor and former wrestler who developed the Germinator, said he noticed the need for a supplemental cleaning device while traveling the youth wrestling circuit with his kids. "Everywhere we'd go, the restrooms would get so nasty, you were literally walking in urine," he said. "There was a trail coming right onto the mat."

The Germinator, which sells for $250, disinfects the bottom of wrestling shoes without wetting them and kills 98.9 percent of germs, Mizner said.

The disinfecting fogging machine that the Amityville school district plans to purchase could cost anywhere from $300 to $1,500, depending on the model, according to Forman.

Ironically, Mauriello's school, Hauppauge, invested in the SteriLaser last year. It is a higher-end ultraviolet machine shown to kill 99.7 percent of bacteria, according to a study by Michigan's Oakland University. The SteriLaser goes for around $1,500, with an extra $500 for a battery pack, a price tag that many cash-strapped schools can't afford.

Despite cost concerns, schools are hopping on the bandwagon.

"At our school, they're pretty good at getting what we need," said Babylon coach Ken Brodmerkel of the Germinator. "Without a doubt, we're going to get one."