MRSA, a staph infection resistant to some antibiotics, is becoming more prevalent in communities around the country, according to Dr. Mary Bengtson, medical and laboratory director for Student Health Services.
Since it was originally seen in hospitals and nursing-home settings, Bengtson said this sometimes-deadly infection is not new to the medical community.
“It’s been in our radar screen for a few years with students with infections,” she said, pointing to MRSA-awareness magnets she said had been in her office for more than a year.
As much as 25 to 30 percent of the population could be colonized with staphylococcus aureus, which means they are carrying the bacteria, but the “staph” bacteria are not causing harm or infection, Bengtson said. What causes an infection, she said, is when that bacteria is able to enter the body through a cut or opening in the skin.
Staph and MRSA can cause infections on the skin that look like bug bites or pimples, but can eventually become large, swollen and painful, according to Bengtson.
Nina Rusty, a sophomore in psychology, said she had normal-looking bumps on her leg that eventually became MRSA.
“I thought it was poison ivy, so I went to the doctor and got medicine to treat it as shingles,” she said.
Rusty found what appeared to be a bug bite on her leg a few days later. She said she went to a dermatologist in Cary that did a culture on the bump and gave her antibiotics.
The next day, she said she had a fever, and the “bug bite” was 3 times bigger than it had been. At the WakeMed Emergency Room, doctors said the boil looked like MRSA.
“I didn’t know what that was,” she said.
An ultrasound found a sack of fluid in her leg, she said, and she went into emergency surgery.
Rusty has since recovered, but she said she thinks she caught the MRSA bacteria at Carmichael Complex, when she was taking a weight-lifting class.
Staph infections similar to MRSA have always been common in sports like wrestling because of close skin-to-skin contact and shared equipment, Charles Rozanski, associate director of athletics-sports medicine, said.
“It’s been out there for the last 3 or 4 years,” Rozanski said.
To help prevent infections, he said the athletics staff tries to keep shared surfaces disinfected, clothing washed and encourages good hygiene among athletes and those using equipment.
“[It is] not just MRSA that should be driving hand-washing and covering cuts,” Bengtson said. “Infectious diseases in general should do that.”
According to Bengtson, the most important precautions to take are washing hands, keeping cuts or breaks in the skin covered, avoiding contact with others, and not sharing towels or clothing.
“You would hope anyone that has an infection would take personal responsibility for keeping it from spreading,” she said.
While MRSA is resistant to certain antibiotics, Bengtson said there should be alternatives for those with the infection.
Instead of using typical infection-related antibiotics like penicillin, Bengtson said doctors have been using antibiotics commonly known as Bactrim DS and Septra DS, as well as minocycline and doxycycline.
“Some of the antibiotics that worked before don’t work now,” she said.
Bengtson said it is most important to get diagnosed early, and Rusty agreed after her experience with MRSA.
“You can get MRSA from anywhere,” Rusty said. “If people start having symptoms or something that looks like a bug bite, they should go to the doctor.”
