MRSA Notes

ORLANDO, Fla. - The deadly bacteria always were contained to hospitals, feasting on people with weak immune systems, people already sick.

But the bacteria have left the hospitals - and they are stronger, tougher to treat. They are bringing down healthy people, young people. Athletes.

In the fall of 2000, 10 players on a Pennsylvania college football team got staph infections. Seven were hospitalized.

A few years ago, an intern in the athletic trainer’s office at the University of Central Florida got staph by scraping his leg against a table. He had to have half his calf removed.

In 2002, two players on a Los Angeles college football team were hospitalized from a staph infection. One athlete’s infection was so bad he had to have the infected skin around his wound surgically removed and a skin graft put in place to cover it.

“There are different strains of staph infections - flesh-eating, bone-eating,” said Kevin Mercuri, head trainer for the Orlando Predators and former head trainer for the University of Central Florida. He was there when his intern contracted the staph infection.

“It can be deadly.”

Read the rest at FortWayne.com

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