College athletes who play contact sports like football, rugby and soccer are more likely to carry the superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), even if they don’t necessarily show any signs of infection.

MRSA is a bacterium that causes infections in various parts of the body, and is more difficult to treat than most strains of staphylococcus aureus because of its resistance to some common antibiotics. Symptoms are dependent upon where the patient is infected, and include skin sores, boils, infected wounds, and infection of the lungs, bloodstream and urinary tract.

In a new study being presented at IDWeek 2014™, college athletes in such sports are at a higher risk for being infected with MRSA and are more likely to spread the condition, which can cause serious and even life-threatening infections. In fact, MRSA kills approximately 18,000 people each year.

Research instructor Natalia Jimenez-Truque, PhD, MSCI, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, and colleagues studied the amount of time it took for college athletes in contact sports to be colonized with MRSA, and how long they carried the bacteria for. The researchers followed 377 athletes from Vanderbilt University who played different contact sports, like football or soccer, and compared them to athletes who played non-contact sports, like baseball or golf.

After taking a monthly nasal and throat swab from each athlete over a two-year period, the researchers discovered that contact sport athletes acquired MRSA more quickly, and were colonized for longer periods than non-contact athletes.

“This study shows that even outside of a full scale outbreak, when athletes are healthy and there are no infections, there are still a substantial number of them who are colonized with these potentially harmful bacteria. Sports teams can decrease the spread of MRSA by encouraging good hygiene in their athletes, including frequent hand washing and avoiding sharing towels and personal items such as soap and razors,” said Jimenez-Truque in a statement.