Employees at Eppley Recreation Center have given conflicting reports of whether any extra cleaning measures have been taken since a member of a swim team that uses the facility contracted an antibiotic-resistant staph infection.

The infected student’s roommates said the student was released from the hospital this weekend after being admitted several days ago, having been diagnosed with a staph infection Thursday night. The student is now recovering with family, one roommate said.

The student’s roommates spoke on the condition that they not be named to protect the student’s privacy.

An outbreak of staph infections in Maryland and Virginia high schools has made headlines in recent weeks. Dozens of students have been diagnosed and one student in Virginia died after being infected, according to reports.

Roommates and officials interviewed for the story said it is impossible to tell exactly where the student contractedthe bacterial infection, but several ERC employees said supervisors put extra emphasis on the pool’s cleaning regimens during this month’s staff meeting.

The employees, who requested anonymity citing ERC rules against speaking to the media, said supervisors stressed the importance of cleaning as a way to prevent spreading infections.

While employees said protocol that requires staff to clean different portions of the pool deck and equipment daily remains the same, supervisors have been stricter about following cleaning guidelines since they learned of the infection.

“The people who are working are cleaning a little harder and taking more time to clean than they have in the past,” one employee said. The employee added that the time between when equipment is used and when it is cleaned has been reduced.

Carrie Tupper, the director for aquatics, refuted the employees’ statements, saying the ERC has not put additional emphasis on cleanliness since the student was diagnosed this past week.

“Cleaning is part of their daily job,” Tupper said of employees. “That is in their job description, right under saving lives. There is no more emphasis.”

Kathy Worthington, the senior associate athletics director who oversees athletes’ medical care, said because bacteria such as staph often grow in moist, dirty environments and are often transmitted by skin-to-skin contact, athletes are particularly prone.

The Athletics Department encounters staph infections every year, she said, but the infections often range in severity and this is the first year she can remember a student being hospitalized.

“There are cases of staph infections, we have them every year,” Worthington said. “It totally depends on the individual case. Most of them are very easily managed and treated.”

Staph infections usually result in pimples, boils or rashes, but sometimes develop into serious illnesses such as pneumonia or bloodstream infections, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Worthington declined to confirm or deny that the recently hospitalized student is an athlete, saying if the student were an athlete she would need the student’s permission before making public statements.

The swim team’s coach declined to comment.

University officials ordered the infected student’s suite cleaned and fumigated at the end of this past week, so the unit’s occupants were relocated to another dorm on the campus, the roommates said. The roommates said they have not been told when it will be safe to move back.

Dr. Sacared Bodison, director of the University Health Center, said the university has experienced a rise in the number of staph infection cases in recent years, reflecting a national trend that shows similar increases.

“As our society overuses antibiotics, we allow common germs to develop resistance,” Bodison said.

The CDC released a study this past week showing antibiotic-resistant staph infections caused 94,000 life-threatening cases and 19,000 deaths in 2005, according to a news release on the CDC’s website.

The study found that about 85 percent occurred in hospitals or other medical care facilities, but the remaining 15 percent of cases were contracted by healthy individuals in the community, according to the release.

Bodison said college campuses might be particularly susceptible to the infection simply because of the large number of people who live in close proximity to one another, interact regularly and share the campus facilities.

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