Skin Lesions Are a Mystery: Seen in Relief Workers More Than Locals

By Ryan Lafontaine, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

Jan. 18–HANCOCK COUNTY — Many storm-relief volunteers working in this county have reported bizarre skin lesions and blisters, prompting state health officials to take a closer look.

Robert Travnivcek, district medical director for the state Department of Health, said officials have been interviewing volunteer relief workers and collecting evidence in Hancock County for several months.

That evidence has been sent to state epidemiologists who will determine whether the lesions are part of a disease outbreak, a spike in a common infection or simply a coincidence of only unrelated volunteers, all working in Hancock County and all bothered by similar afflictions.

“For a long time now we’ve been seeing localized rashes and some of them even look like sores,” said Shana Blakeny, a nurse practitioner in the emergency room at Hancock Medical Center.

In cases in which the sore is large enough to ooze fluid, Blakeny said, the substance is collected and tested in a local lab; often the result is staph infection.

The common bacterium that causes staph infections usually lives on the skin or in the nose and it gets into the body through a cut or medical incision. For decades, locals believed the infection was confined only to hospitals.

Blakeny said Hancock has dealt with such cases for about five years and it’s gotten worse since Katrina struck nearly 17 months ago.

But why are volunteers complaining of mysterious lesions and sores and locals aren’t?

Blakeny said it’s likely many locals have the lesions, too, but they’re more accustomed to the infection, which can range from minor skin lesions to life-threatening bloodstream disorders.

“We saw a guy the other day who said he had never had anything like it before, but since he’s been down here, he’s had it three times,” she said.

The lesions seem strange enough to help set in motion a state health investigation, and state epidemiologists hope to soon determine whether the lesions are associated with staph infection or something else.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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