Link: The Daily World
It looked sort of like a pimple or an ingrown hair. But three days later, the red dot on Steve Hewitt’s armpit morphed into the size of a small tangerine.
“I couldn’t put my arm down,” the South Aberdeen man said.
The painful lump that resembled a big boil was diagnosed at Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen in August as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. These sort of serious “staph” infections are getting more common on the Harbor, health officials say.
“Five years ago it was a rare bird, today I’m seeing several cases a week,” said Dr. John Bausher, the director of infection control at Grays Harbor Community Hospital.
Last week, Aberdeen High School wrestlers opted to postpone two meets because at least three athletes were diagnosed with staph infections.
“We error on the side of caution. The last thing we want to do is put kids who are not healthy on the mats and have them possibly spread it to another teen,” said AHS’ athletic director, Derek Cook. “As soon as the coach (noticed) it, he brought in health officials right away. And we talked to the kids about it.
“Up until last year, we heard a lot about it in the Seattle area,” Cook added. “Fortunately it has not been a problem with our athletes, until now.” Cook says the infections were caught early and the kids should be fine.
