Posted on Sun, Mar. 05, 2006

Uncertainty: Fix proves elusive

The community version of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- known as MRSA -- can be difficult to treat because it's not affected by several common antibiotics. It can be even tougher to identify. In its early stages, MRSA infections look like ingrown hairs. Or insect bites. Or shaving nicks. Or pimples. Or boils.

Oak Grove running back Jerid Ferranti mistook the red bump on his shin for an ingrown hair. Then he thought it was a spider bite. Then he didn't know what to think, except that something was wrong.

``Any time my blood started pumping, it felt like there was poison going through my body,'' he said.

Fortunately for Ferranti, doctors diagnosed the infection properly, he was placed on antibiotics and didn't miss any games.

That was not the case with a friend and teammate, receiver Mohamed Marah, who developed an MRSA infection five weeks later -- one that came deviously disguised as soreness on the bottom of his foot and forced Marah to sit out a game.

``We weren't sure if it was his cleats or what,'' Oak Grove Coach Ed Boller said. ``We went round and round. . . . With Jerid's, you could tell right away. But Mohamed's was misdiagnosed.

``Once we were able to detect it, it only took about two days for him to get better. He went from barely walking to running around in two days.''

-- Jon Wilner