Nine cases of MRSA have been reported this year in Henry County schools before these three new cases diagnosed with the same infection, this Tuesday. MRSA,  methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, seems to have caused the death of high school senior in Virginia, last week.

MRSA can start on the skin looking like a bug bite and then turns into painful abscesses. It becomes dangerous when it enters into the blood.

It seems that staph infections usually originated in health settings are spreading their area of contracting. Particularly over the last decade, staph infection has been found in prisons, athletic field and locker rooms.

Henry county officials have referred the students to a doctor and notified parents. Also, they have taken measures by using appropriate cleaning agents to kill the bacteria and to disinfect all potentially contaminated areas.

In the recent weeks, five cases of staph infection have been reported in metro Atlanta schools, four at the public schools in north Fulton County, one case of freshman football player at DeKalb County’s Columbia High School and Cato Meridian has two students with MRSA, one in high school and the other in elementary school.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise people outside medical facilities to take the following actions in order to prevent contracting the infection: wash hands with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, keep cuts and scrapes clean and covered with a bandage, when one appears red or infected, see a doctor and avoid sharing items like towels or razors.