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Peer-reviewed scientific literature on survival of staph in seaw
May 24, 2010 | 09:20 AM

I would also like to know who the unnamed UH staff member is that is willing to assure the county that staph cannot survive in seawater.
As a marine microbiologist, I am confident that it can and does survive well in seawater, and there is a large body of peer-reviewed primary scientific literature that supports this. Even a simple Google Scholar search for "staph survival in seawater" brings up many pages of peer-reviewed studies that all find staph survives in seawater.


One such example can be found in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health.(2008 July; vol. 211: pages 398-402) in a study by Tolba, Loughrey, Goldsmith, Millar, Rooney, and Moore.
The title is "Survival of epidemic strains of healthcare (HA-MRSA) and community-associated (CA-MRSA) meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in river-, sea- and swimming pool water."

Excerpts from their abstract include:
"The aim of this study was to examine the survival dynamics of several epidemic healthcare (HA) and community-associated (CA) meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in river, sea and swimming pool waters.... Two strains of each type were examined resulting in a total of 14 organisms being examined... An inoculum of each MRSA isolate was added individually to each water microcosm.... This study demonstrates that all 14 epidemic HA and CA MRSA studied can survive in sea and river water environments up to at least 14 days post inoculation. There was no significant differences in the survival dynamics between CA-MRSA and HA-MRSA in any water environment... This study indicates that contaminated sea and river water may serve as potential reservoirs of HA- and CA-MRSA, if such water sources become contaminated with these organisms."

Transparency and correct information are necessary on the part of the County. Publicizing blatantly incorrect information isn't helping anyone solve anything and in an embarrassment to the County. It is the County's responsibility to protect the public-- pretending the problem doesn't exist and lying to support that claim is unacceptable.
It's definitely time to clean up the water.

Melissa Garren
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego


Melissa Garren