The day started out like any normal day, for any normal high school student.
Tyler Herrick, a senior at Huntingtown High School and varsity football player, stepped into the shower and began shampooing his hair. As he washed, he felt a “zit” behind his left ear. He normally would have thought nothing of it, except that it hurt when he brushed against it. The pain was excruciating.
He knew right away what he was dealing with: a staph infection.
Although Herrick’s discovery sounds like any recent staph infection horror story, his occurred in September 2004.
“It was common knowledge that it was staph,” Herrick said. “Almost everyone else on the [Huntingtown High School] football team had it.”
In the few days it took for Herrick to schedule an appointment with his doctor, his staph infection had grown to the size of a golf ball.
“They drained it… they gave me antibiotics, and it went away. They were worried about it spreading to the brain,” Herrick said.
Luckily, Herrick recovered quickly. Despite his encounter with staph infection, however, he was not required to stay home from school at any time; a far cry from the reactions seen today.
Staph infections have recently received major attention from both the national and local media, as reports of deaths and school closings have been linked to the bacteria.
Staphylococcus aureus, or “staph,” are bacteria that are commonly found on the skin or in the nose of healthy people. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), staph infections are one of the most common causes of skin infection in the United States.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are staph bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. Although MRSA was originally found only in hospitals and nursing homes, it was later found on those who had not recently been hospitalized. This introduced community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA), which allowed for MRSA to spread outside of hospitals. Approximately 1% of the population has MRSA, according to the CDC.
“I don’t think there’s an outbreak, people are just more aware,” Marsha Sturgis, a staff nurse at Calvert Memorial Hospital, said during a telephone interview with The Bay Net.
According to Sturgis, the recent prominence of staph infections in the media have prompted many to come to the hospital with spider bites and other ailments, believing them to be staph infections.
“I see at least one [staph patient] every day,” said Sturgis. “Overall, it seems about the same.”
Although there has been no noticeable increase in the number of staph infections in Calvert County, it is a topic that has left many people talking.
“My brother goes to middle school, and I worry about him,” said Chelsea Augustine, of Huntingtown.
Augustine, who is currently enrolled at the College of Southern Maryland, said she and her brother never received literature regarding staph infections from their respective schools.
“Even when they had [staph] at Huntingtown High, I remember it was kept quiet,” she said.
Not all schools are keeping quiet on