A painful and virulent skin infection that has plagued Los Angeles County jail inmates is now appearing with increasing frequency throughout Southern California.
Public health officials across the region are warning family doctors and hospitals to be on the lookout for the infection, caused by a new form of Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as staph.
The infection -- easily misdiagnosed and resistant to antibiotics commonly used to treat skin infections -- causes a skin reaction, usually in the form of lesions or small boils that, if left untreated, can become as large as a softball.
"It's an emerging epidemic," said Dr. Gonzalo Ballon-Landa, an infectious disease consultant in San Diego County. "Doctors in California and the whole community are not picking up yet on the fact that [it] is here."
The disease has occasionally led to severe blood and bone infections and even pneumonia. While rarely fatal, it was linked to the deaths of four children in the late 1990s.
In the past, such infections have been restricted to the sick and elderly in hospitals and nursing homes. Since 2002, however, jails in Los Angeles County and around the country have struggled to keep a lid on outbreaks among inmates.
Sheriff's Department and public health officials are expected to report to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors today on their efforts to stop the infection inside and outside the jails.
Health officials said they have recently seen otherwise healthy people contract the infection, including athletes, military recruits, children in day care and gay men.
"Now it just appears to be that being a human being with skin is sufficient," said Dr. David Talan, chief of Olive View-UCLA Medical Center's department of emergency medicine.
Authorities have not tracked the spread of the disease because doctors are not required to report cases. But recent studies suggest a rapid increase in the last year or two in infections treated at emergency rooms.
At Olive View, Talan and his colleague Dr. Gregory Moran tracked infections last August. Two years ago, doctors treated just one or two cases in a typical month. But Talan and Moran tallied 28 cases in August -- almost one a day. Those cases accounted for about half of all tested skin infections treated at the hospital.
At the same time, Talan and Moran tallied skin infections at 10 other hospitals in cities including New York, Philadelphia and Atlanta, with similar results. About 60% of tested skin infections were caused by the new strain of staph.
