Thy Rod and Staph

by Peter M. DelVecchio

“Let’s just have a look,” my doctor said. I eased my briefs down, wincing. The soft cotton felt like a cheese grater sliding over the little “patient.” It was swollen, red, raw and on fire. “Gonorrhea!” she said. “We’ll test to make sure, but I’ll give you the meds now.”

“Wow!” I thought. “My first STD!” As a tweaker, I’d arrived.

The test came back negative about the same time pissing had become agony, except in push-up position, keeping it submerged in a pot of ice water. One more misdiagnosis later, they figured out I was infected with MRSA, that highly drug-resistant, so-called “flesh-eating” staph bacterium that’s been making the news. Two jackhammer injections and a bottle of gobstopper pills after that, it started getting better. All told, I was sidelined for three weeks, eternity and a half to a PNP-obsessed tweaker.

A study released earlier this month in the Annals of Internal Medicine reports that MRSA is on the rise among gay men. It’s most easily transmitted through anal sex, but wrapping it up won’t necessarily protect you—you can get it through simple skin-to-skin contact, or even from contaminated surfaces. Now, who do we know who has lots of anal sex and skin-to-skin contact? Could it be ... tweakers?

And MRSA is no joke. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 19,000 Americans died from MRSA infections in 2005, more than from AIDS. (Most of the deaths resulted from infections picked up in hospitals, but not all of them.) CDC’s website also says that “people with weakened immune systems, which includes some patients with HIV infection, may be at risk for more severe illnesses if they get infected with MRSA.” In other words, if you’re HIV-positive, a MRSA infection can make you more vulnerable to other, dangerous secondary infections.

MRSA can generate a variety of symptoms—pain or swelling around a cut or scrape; boils, carbuncles or white-headed or red pimples, often around hair follicles; swollen lymph nodes in the neck, armpits or groin; or even a simple rash. With me, it started as nothing more than dry, flaking skin and a little irritation, which I thought was just from “overuse.”

The good news is that, according to the authors of the new study and other experts, scrubbing with soap and water, especially after sex, can help prevent skin-to-skin infection.

If you’re using Tina, you’re probably mostly playing raw (admit it), which means you’re exposing yourself to HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea, hepatitis A through Wednesday, genital warts, crabs, fleas, diaper rash and dingleberries. Add MRSA to the list. The minute you see or feel anything weird on or under your skin, get it looked at. And mention MRSA because, trust me, you don’t want to be misdiagnosed!

Peter DelVecchio is a reporter for IN Los Angeles magazine and an attorney. He is also writing a book about his experiences with meth.