STOPPING THE SPREAD The number of MRSA cases is on the rise in the region, prompting calls for the public to be vigilant.

Byline: CATHY ZOLLO cathy.zollo@heraldtribune.com

Often within 24 hours, the tiny wound grows into a deep and painful abscess, a sign that tissue destruction that comes with a MRSA infection is well under way.

Waiting longer to visit a doctor could lead to the infection burrowing deep into the body and causing bone and blood infections and affecting the heart valves and lungs.

Studies show that nationally, MRSA infections are up from 3 percent of cultured infections in 2001 to 60 percent today.

And the story is no different locally.

Officials at Sarasota Memorial Hospital noticed an increase in MRSA-related infections about three years ago and began

culturing all abscessed wounds.

The hospital found that the spread of MRSA in Sarasota is up from an estimated 3 percent in 2001 to 30 or 40 percent three years ago and rising, said Dr. William Colgate, medical director, Sarasota Memorial emergency care center. Statistics from Manatee Memorial Hospital and Fawcett Memorial Hospital in Charlotte County are similar, officials say.

"It has doubled especially in the ER in the last six months," said Cassie Molina, infection control coordinator for Manatee Memorial Hospital. Increasing numbers of the infections at Manatee Memorial's pediatric unit mirror those from the emergency room, Molina said.

"If we see an increase in the ER, we know we are going to see one in pediatrics," she said.

Melanie Hall, who heads infection control at Fawcett in Punta Gorda, said she has also seen dramatic increases in MRSA coming into the hospital, even among people who do not know they are infected.

Hall said the hospital decided in May to screen a variety of patients coming in for MRSA, including those who were there for joint replacement surgery, anyone coming in from a nursing home or prison, and people with a history of having MRSA infections or kidney dialysis.

Among those, Hall has seen the numbers jump in just a few…