The headlines have been alarming: Staph infections in Franklin schools, and Brookfield's High Tech Institute shut down for a couple of days after a MRSA scare. Now that potentially deadly infections are flaring up in school locker rooms, many are asking if health clubs could be next in line for an outbreak. A sports doctor from The Medical College of Wisconsin told Today's TMJ4's Shelley Walcott, it's possible. When you have people especially walking around barefoot, sweating, in close quarters... There's a possibility that you're going to have a spread of communicable diseases," said Dr. Mark Niedfeldt. Today's TMJ4 decided to test some popular local gyms. We took our hidden camera into the downtown Bally's. The gym looked reasonably clean. A bottle of disinfectant was readily available. We used sterile swabs to wipe down free weights, bikes and the treadmill. S-F Labs tested those swabs. The results? An unusually high bacteria count. Said microbiologist Gil Kelly: "You know, I was a little surprised. I wasn't expecting it to be that high." Dr. Niedfelt says that's exactly what can make people sick. He said, "Certainly those areas could be spreading especially a bacteria type or thing or there are some fungi, ringworm, things like that." Today's TMJ4 also checked out machines at the North Shore Wisconsin Athletic Club. And again, more unusually high levels of bacteria. Said Kelley: "Obviously the sites that were sampled are not clean. They weren't wiped down with a sanitizer of any kind, or if they were it wasn't done very effectively." Our investigative team also visited college workout centers. The Klotsche Center at U-W Milwaukee did not test clean. Marquette University's Rec Plex had lower levels of bacteria, but experts say even low levels of germs can make you sick. Once all the swabbing at the gyms was done, we contacted the centers' managers to hear what they had to say about the dirty results. John Kratzer, General Manager of the Marquette Rec Plex released this statement: "Marquette University Recreational Sports takes great pride in the cleanliness of their recreation facilities, including the Rec Plex. A non-acid disinfectant cleaner is used. Rec Sports administration has also taken a proactive approach to educate the users (patrons) by posting notices and user responsibilities. Marquette follows a recommendation from our student health physician that there be a minimum 24 hour cleaning and that all benches be wiped down with the disinfectant cleaner. We also provide the disinfectant cleaner in all workout areas for the users to clean-up up their own perspiration that they may leave on the machines." Laura Glawe, a spokesperson for UWM wrote us to say: "The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is assuring a cleaner environment for their fitness facility guests. The well-being of its students and non-student members is a priority. In addition to enhancing it's cleaning procedures, the university will provide more bottles of disinfectant throughout the center so that patrons can more conveniently opt to clean the equipment before and after each use. We are also in the process of gathering and posting information to help educate visitors about the importance of good hygiene practices, such as frequent hand washing, the covering of open wounds, and showering after physical activity, in the control of infections." Today's TMJ4 also heard from the general manager of the North Shore WAC. Deb Orr said: "We actually document all of our cleaning processes. And actually you'll see there's someone here everyday cleaning. And while the public health clubs insist they clean regularly, the same does not appear to be true at some private clubs. The dirtiest gym tested turned out to be the workout room in an apartment building on the east side. There were no bottles of disinfectant, and the bacteria levels showed no one had cleaned the gym in a while. Said Dr. Niedfelt: "Your gym really can make you sick."