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State health officials have issued a warning about a "superbug" that is resistant to some antibiotics that has infected members of two high school football teams.
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus â or MRSA â has struck athletic teams, said Dr. Danae Bixler, director of infectious disease epidemiology for the Bureau of Public Health.
MRSA nearly always occurs in closed systems like hospitals and prisons, but it is strangely making an appearance elsewhere.
West Virginia epidemiologists reported the infection for the first time in some correctional facilities, in two households in Marshall County and in a "close-knit social group in Calhoun County."
The Calhoun group was not identified.
"I am very concerned," Bixler said, about MRSA's occurrence in high school students.
Some of the cases occurred in Mason County.
Two football players at Roane County High School have recovered from MRSA infections, said Richard Wittberg, regional epidemiologist for nine counties, including Roane.
At Roane High a 16-year-old player went to an emergency room Aug. 16 with a knee wound infected with MRSA. A few days later, an ankle wound from Aug. 8 in a 15-year-old teammate was tested positive for MRSA.
A culture taken on an infected hair on the boys' coach was found to have MRSA. The infection progressed to an abscess, which did not respond to a variety of oral antibiotics. The coach underwent treatment with intravenous vancomycin â a powerful antibiotic â in the hospital in order to recover.
The bacteria, called Staphylococcus aureus, commonly are found on the skin of about 40 percent of humans, generally does not cause problems.
The bacteria can get into a break in the skin, infecting it. The infection often is seen in the chronically ill with diabetes or renal failure, so the appearance in students is unusual.
At one time, penicillin could kill this bacteria, which is now resistant to the drug.
State public health officials have sent a health alert to county health departments, school nurses and physicians about community acquired MRSA in two football teams.
In Mason County, several football players had what they thought were spider bites. It later tested positive for MRSA. One boy had been treated for several days with an antibiotic called ceftriaxone but had not improved. After he was given a more powerful antibiotic called levofloxacin, he recovered.
Bixler would like residents to understand, however, to exercise caution about taking antibiotics.
"When using antibiotics, use them with good reason," she said. "And practice excellent personal hygiene."
Read more about MRSA at Center for Disease Control
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