Diagnoses confirm 10 students have contracted staph infections

Schools in Ambridge and Mount Lebanon are reporting the infections.
AMBRIDGE, Pa. (AP) -- Ten students at two western Pennsylvania high schools have been diagnosed with staph infections, and eight of them were confirmed to have a relatively new strain that has baffled medical experts because it is resistant to some antibiotics and generally found in younger, otherwise healthy people.
Three students at Ambridge Area High School in Beaver County were diagnosed with staph infections last week, one of which was antibiotics-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
Test results to identify the strain that sickened the other two students weren't immediately available Saturday.
Officials at Mount Lebanon High School in neighboring Allegheny County confirmed seven students there -- all athletes -- also had the MRSA strain. No link is suspected between those sickened at the two schools, which are about 30 miles apart.
About the infections
MRSA infections tend to be mild skin infections that cause boils or lesions, though symptoms can also include redness, pain, drainage and swelling. One of the Mount Lebanon students was hospitalized, but the other students continue to attend school.
"This is usually a mild illness," said Allegheny County Health Department spokesman Guillermo Cole. "Rarely do you have complications."
Doctors aren't required to report MRSA cases to county or state health departments, so it is unclear how often the infections occur. They can be treated with antibiotics not used to treat other strains of staph bacteria.
Health experts have noticed the new strain in the last couple of years, said Nicole Coffin, spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
"We're learning more about it as we speak," Coffin said. "It's a strain of bacteria that is emerging and doing very well for itself."
How it differs
MRSA is different from staph infections commonly found in hospitals that typically affect sick and elderly patients. The new strain tends to infect those who come into close contact with one another's skin, including prison inmates, military members, and children in group child care centers.
In the last two months, relatively small outbreaks have been reported in several other states -- often among student-athletes, who may share towels and gymnasium facilities.
About 20 students at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore were found to have staph infections they caught at the school's gym earlier this month.
Officials in Johnston and Caddo counties in Oklahoma reported about 40 cases in several cities, causing a high school football game to be canceled this month. And more than two dozen students were sickened in September at East Peoria High School in Illinois.
Officials at the schools in Ambridge and Mount Lebanon said they are disinfecting locker areas, and now forbid players to share towels and equipment. Players are being told to clean their equipment at home each day.
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