Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Removing drug-resistant staph from the noses of wrestling-camp counselors cut the rate of potentially deadly skin infections 58 percent at the camp, compared with a year earlier, a study shows.

Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, infected a quarter of the wrestlers at a Minneapolis wrestling camp in 2006. In 2007, researchers tested coaches' and counselors' noses for MRSA and found about half were carriers. Once researchers removed the contaminant, infections dropped.

Removing bacteria from carriers in other situations involving close quarters may help slow the spread of the disease throughout the community, the researchers said. MRSA infected 94,360 people in 2005, killing 18,650, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Outbreaks have occurred among athletes, gay men, children and prisoners, the CDC said. In July, two high-school wrestlers in Downey, California, contracted MRSA; one died of the infection.

Counselors ``show them the moves and have a lot of direct contact with the kids,'' said Bruce Anderson, the study's author and a researcher at the University of Minnesota in Burnsville, said in a telephone interview Oct. 23. ``When we found the rate was that high among the counselors, that was amazing to me.''

Anderson reported his findings today at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in Washington. About 14 percent of MRSA infections involve people who acquired the disease outside the health-care system.

MRSA can live in people's noses without infecting them, growing and multiplying; this is called colonization. Colonized people can spread MRSA to others, or can become infected through a break in the skin. The noses of the camp counselors and coaches were cleaned out using topical antibiotics called mupirocin and chlorhexadene for five days.

Testing among wrestlers and coaches would lower rates of infection at schools, Anderson said.

``It would have to be pushed by the parents,'' he said. ``We have tried in the past and no one wants to do it.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Lopatto in New York at elopatto@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 26, 2008 13:06 EDT