STAPH INFECTION SPREADS FROM JAIL SHERIFF'S DEPUTY, CHILD AMONG VICTIMS.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

A painful, antibiotic-resistant skin infection has spread to 1,245 Los Angeles County jail inmates since last year, and health officials said Tuesday they are studying an increasing number of infections among the general population, including hospitalized children.

Public Health Officer Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding said authorities want to find out the extent of the outbreak and whether released prisoners are spreading the infection, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, to their families and friends.

``The bottom line is the situation since last August is not getting better and ultimately will cost taxpayers a significant amount of money to treat inmates,'' Fielding said. ``Now, it may be infecting some sheriff's employees.''

The disease is not new, but it has suddenly emerged in a new strain that is resistant to antibiotics, officials say.

``We used to think of MRSA as just being a hospital disease,'' said Dr. Elizabeth A. Bancroft, a county epidemiologist. ``But now there is a new strain of MRSA that is really a community disease.''

Last year 920 county jail inmates contracted MRSA, including 57 who were hospitalized. So far this year, 325 inmates have have had MRSA, with 125 in March, up from 94 in February. No deaths have been reported.

``Some of this increase may be due to better surveillance,'' Fielding said.

A sheriff's deputy and his child contracted MRSA this month, although it's uncertain if the child got the disease from his father, Fielding said.

Officials did not identify the city where the deputy and child live.

Other sheriff's deputies reported what they believed to be spider bites last June, and a sergeant requested a test recently, sheriff's Custody Chief Charles Jackson said.

Jackson said inmates are being screened for the infection upon admission to jail. Officials have increased clean bedding and clothing exchanges for those infected, are encouraging inmates to take daily showers and are considering the use of expensive antibacterial soaps.

Fielding said some inmates are entering jail with the infection, and he is concerned about whether infected inmates have access to medical care after leaving jail.

Health officials have also investigated outbreaks in the county among members of a football team, at a nursery for newborn infants and among HIV-positive men who have sex with men.

The new, more virulent strain of the disease begins as a skin condition, evolves into sores that resemble insect bites and progresses to painful boils and abscesses. In rare cases, if it infects the lungs or blood, it can cause life-threatening pneumonia.

The disease, which normally affects only sick and elderly hospital patients, has infected thousands of healthy people in San Francisco, New York, Miami, Boston and elsewhere in the United States. Most of the reported outbreaks are among homosexual men and prison inmates, but athletes and children involved in contact sports have also been infected.