red456

My son is lying in a hospital bed on two intravenous antibiotics for a staph infection of unknown origin.

I happened to be visiting him today when the hospital's infectious disease specialist stopped by to check on him. I took the opportunity to ask her if she had ever seen an infection acquired from an airport security checkpoint, specifically from travelers being forced to walk in their bare feet.

She told me that she has been suspicious of that means of acquisition with several of her patients after interviewing them, as she did my son, regarding their activities in the few days prior to their becoming ill.

I didn't have the courage to ask if she'd ever reported her suspicions to the CDC.

SDF_Traveler

Red,

I'm sorry to hear your son is in the hospital. My thoughts and prayers are with you, your son, and family that he has a speedy recovery.

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if checkpoints at US airports are breeding grounds for diseases - esp with everyone going through without shoes. I question how often the floors get cleaned, but perhaps of even more concern, the x-ray belts and the plastic bins everything gets tossed into.

SDF_Traveler

Schurr

Someone should take some swabs of those bins and the floor area and have them tested. It would make a great local news story.

Steve

red456

Thanks, SDF_Traveler. He's holding his own; at least his condition isn't worsening as it was over the weekend.

thegeneral

Everything around you has germs. I'm pretty sure that they won't magically flow through the floor into the skin on your feet. Not many diseases are acquired purely through touch. Perhaps if you can rub your eye or a mucous membrane with your bare sole you might get in trouble, otherwise, I wouldn't be too overly concerned. I bring socks to change in when I go through security when I'm wearing sandals, but that is purely for the polite factor.

I hope your son gets well soon.

breny

How interesting. So now in addition to being a General you're an infectious disease specialist as well?

Big Mo

Wrestlers, swimmers, and other athletes who contact their bare skin with a potentially dirty surface know that this is nonsense. You definitely can get staph this way.

sylvia hennesy

How does athlete's foot get contracted, if not through the contact with bare feet?

Arthurrs

Add to that Athlete's Foot!

Gargoyle

And add to that the risk to diabetics and to people with cuts, cracked skin or open sores on their feet.

LLM

Wrestlers get staph, impetigo and even herpes despite constantly washing down the mats and not allowing anyone with symptoms to wrestle. Yet the rest of us are expected to tramp on filthy floors walked on by thousands?

DriveByDoc

Ah, where to begin? There are LOTS of things you can acquire by touch by touching infected surfaces, whether that would be the floor, a handrail, a security bin, a restroom door handle, etc. Gastroenteritis causing viruses, like the infamous cruise ship Norwalk virus, are primarily spread by the oral-fecal route, but can be passed on by touching a contaminated surface (and there are so many to choose from in any public area!) and then touching your own mouth. So if little Johnny has vomiting and diarrhea and doesn't wash his hands very well, and then contaminates a surface either by touch or by aersolizing a few vomitus particles, the next person comes along and can get infected. We tend to touch our faces and mouths a lot without being consciously aware of it, so guess where all that wonderful virus could end up?

The sad fact is that many people travel when they are ill, especially on mass transit like buses and airplanes, and in addition to the gastroenteritis illnesses, people can cough and sneeze and give you all kinds of fun upper respiratory stuff (to include tuberculosis, influenza and SARS). And now we have to wonder about community-acquired MRSA (methicillin-resistant staph auresus - the super bug we used to just find in hospitals and long term care facilities) if people with open sores contaminate others through touch or by contaminating a common surface.

It can drive you nuts just thinking about all the possibilities, but taking reasonable precautions like good handwashing will help. Not much you can do about the respiratory illnesses, but I personally insist on clean gloves from the TSA folks if they're going to root through my bag because they may have handled little Johnny's dirty underwear two bags ahead of me.

KleineFrau

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

justageek

http://www.airportbusiness.com/artic...tion=5&id=7090

About 17 million pairs of feet move through Lindbergh Field Airport in San Diego every year. Each passenger is asked to take off their shoes at security. Some are clean, some are dirty, and some carry diseases, 10News reported.

"If there are individuals walking barefoot or with socks, they will transmit to another person walking over the same spot," lower leg desease expert Dr. Daniel Lee said.

What do socked or barefooted passengers leave behind? 10News used petri dishes to gather samples where passengers picked up their carry-ons off the conveyer belt at the security checkpoint.

After sampling in San Diego, a 10News employee headed to Las Vegas and Phoenix -- two popular destinations for San Diegans.

Investigative reporter Marti Emerald gave the samples to Quadrants Scientific in Rancho Bernardo.

The lab identified a mold from McCarron Airport in Las Vegas as trichophyston, which causes ringworm and favus, a nasty disease of the scalp.

The next test was from Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, where samples were lifted to test for bacteria.

Scientists found bacteria and fungus unique to the areas where passengers removed their shoes.

"I do have concerns over the organisms you found," Lee said. "Staphylococcus causes skin infections that goes deep through the layers and people who are sensitive can pick it up."

Lee said this particular organism is resistant to many of the antibotics used these days.

"The other organism I saw was Neisseria. It is of the species and genus that can lead to gonorrhea," Lee said.

[...]

flyingpharmd

I am very sorry to hear about your son. My best wishes for a full recovery and no sequelae (complications).

I did a two-year post-PharmD infectious diseases fellowship, so I hope this information helps.

It would be virtually impossible to trace an infection back to a specific spot or location in an airport, because the sad fact is that the world is a very filthy place microbiologically. Human skin is colonized with several different types of bacteria, fungi and viruses. Some of these species are not normally pathogenic (disease-causing), but in rare instances do become active infections. Among the bacterial species are Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Corynebacter and other potentially infectious agents. The Staph species are especially problemmatic because they routinely cause self-limited skin infections like boils, etc., and there are also many other species which can also colonize skin and other body surfaces.

I am a not at all surprised by what the infectious diseases doc told you. When I was in clinical practice in a hospital ICU, I routinely saw all sorts of bacterial infections that came from sources known and unknown.

Best wishes to your family at this time!