Guard ill from staph

Link: PittsburghLIVE.com.

A guard is the latest person at the Allegheny County Jail to develop an antibiotic-resistant staph infection, raising the number of current cases at the Uptown lockup to 27 or 28, county officials said Thursday.

Allegheny County Independent Prison Employees Union secretary/treasurer Rick Stevenson told the Jail Oversight Board of the latest diagnosis. Stevenson said he did not know the condition of the unnamed guard, only that he or she has been off sick from work.

Identities and details about the medical condition of guards are not revealed to protect their privacy, Warden Ramon Rustin said.

Another guard was diagnosed with the illness earlier this year but has since returned to work, Rustin said.

There are currently 27 or 28 active cases of antibiotic-resistant staph infection at the jail, a jail health official said.

Yesterday’s tally was the first time jail officials have reported the number of cases that have cropped up since methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) killed two female inmates — Valeriya Whetsell, 51, of Wilkinsburg, and Amy Sartori, 31, of Mt. Washington — in March.

There have been persistent complaints from inmates and guards about the problem ever since.

After the meeting, Dana Philips, chief operating officer of Allegheny County Correctional Health Services — the agency that provides medical care at the jail — said she does not know the total number of MRSA cases that have been diagnosed at the jail this year.

MRSA’s effects are often limited to open sores that resemble severe insect bites or pimples, but the disease can be fatal.

Jail administrators have improved hygiene practices to combat the disease, adding more laundry staff, for example, Stevenson said. But medical officials seem to be downplaying the problem, he said.

“It seems like the medical department is trying to shroud it as, ‘We have 2,700 inmates and we only have 27 cases.’ ”

Medical workers take the problem seriously and are trying to encourage inmates to fight the problem in the most effective way possible, Philips said. That means washing regularly and maintaining clean living conditions. But she also said MRSA is a common problem, and that some people such as intravenous drug users are particularly susceptible.

Eliminating MRSA at the jail is impossible, short of shutting down, Rustin said.

MRSA has become more common throughout the country, often cropping up among sports teams and other places where many people are in close contact.

At least three Mt. Lebanon High School football players contracted the disease in September.