Staph infection is becoming common in lockups in area

Such infections increased
tenfold between 1995 and 2005.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — Though it may sound bad to say that at any given time, there are usually a couple of inmates being treated in the Trumbull County Jail for staph infection, the problem has become routine, the jail’s medical director says.

Dr. Phillip Malvasi says staph infection was once known as a deadly condition, but treatment methods now employed have been successful at eliminating the problem at the county jail.

“In the past, it was hard to treat. People died from it,” he said, but with today’s medicine, “As long as they’re treated, they’re fine,” Dr. Malvasi said.

About six years ago, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, started to become more common in nursing homes, hospitals and then corrections facilities such as prisons and jails, he said.

It started to become common in local jails such as Trumbull County’s about 18 months ago. Now, it is common in jails throughout the area, he said.

At any given time, the Trumbull County Jail has one or two inmates being treated for the infection. The facility generally has around 340 inmates. A two- to three-week course of antibiotics clears it up, he said.

Getting infected

The infection is carried in the nasal passages of healthy people and is generally transmitted to other people through open wounds in the skin caused by abrasions or cuts.

In some cases, inmates have the infection when they arrive at the jail. In others, they acquire it inside, he said.

“People come in all the time who have it because of poor hygiene,” Dr. Malvasi said, saying nursing home residents tend to have higher incidence of the problem than jail inmates because inmates tend to be healthier in general.

The condition is usually reported to the medical staff as a red bump on the inmate’s arm. Frequently the inmate believes the bump is the result of a bug bite.

Malvasi noted that the medical care inmates get is generally better than what they receive outside of jail, and he’s heard of cases where individuals got arrested on purpose to get medical attention.

The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, a health-care research company, reported last month that there were 368,600 hospital stays for MRSA in 2005, a tenfold increase over 1995. The highest rate of MRSA hospitalization was among the elderly.

runyan@vindy.com