Athlete's MRSA was not from a spider bite

In Sunday's article profiling Easton Trakel your reporter described the athlete's MRSA infection as one that "...started with a spider bite," and that Trakel "doesn't know when the spider bit him."

If your reporter had done his homework, he would have known that spiders do not transmit MRSA, that most physicians know that MRSA is often mistaken for a spider bite, even at times by a few uninformed physicians, and that MRSA is frequently contracted by athletes who spend time in the gym. (See CDC's website re: MRSA). This kind of reporting only serves to misinform and to further fan the flames of our all-too-common arachnophobia.

In my 40 years of office practice, I have treated only one spider bite, but have had dozens of patients who thought they were bitten (never saw the spider) but who cultured positive for MRSA.

Please, leave spiders to their crucial environmental role, and MRSA to it's spider-free, person-to-person transmission.

This story was originally published August 27, 2015 at 10:50 AM with the headline "Athlete's MRSA was not from a spider bite."