Marines curb training due to strep cases

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- The rigorous training regimen at the Marine Corps' boot camp in San Diego was ordered scaled back Monday as base officials took steps to curb an outbreak of highly contagious strep that has hospitalized dozens of Marines and may have cost one recruit his life.

The Marine Corps Recruit Depot said it was limiting its training schedule for some 4,600 recruits to classes and marching, and shelving its closer contact activities such as swimming instruction, martial arts and physical training until at least later this week.

More than 100 Marines have been treated in recent days for Group A streptococcus, a potentially fatal bacterial infection that starts off as a sore throat and is considered a particular threat to large groups of people living in close quarters.

"In such a group setting it is not unusual to have an outbreak of strep," Dr. Michelle Ginsberg, San Diego County's chief epidemiologist, told The San Diego Union-Tribune. "You have all those recruits from different parts of the country living in close quarters. It's very stressful."

Navy medical corpsmen Sunday took swabs from the throats of all of the shaved-headed privates undergoing basic training at the facility near downtown San Diego and will culture them to determine the extent of the outbreak.

Symptoms related to untreated strep include the possibility of rheumatic fever, which can cause later heart problems; nephritis, which is an inflammation in the kidney; and scarlet fever that manifests itself with a skin rash that looks like pinkish-red goose bumps. The rash is easily recognizable by treating physicians and generally appears first under the arms and in the groin area and then spreads throughout the body.

One recruit died Saturday of a bacterial infection that may or may not have been strep. Pvt. Miguel Zavala, 18, of Greenfield, Calif., reported to the base clinic with a rash on his left ankle.

"While at the acute area, the rash spread to the rest of his body. He was then transported to the Naval Medical Center in San Diego for evaluation and emergency care," officials at MCRD said in a press release.

Usually the antibiotic of choice for treating strep throat is a penicillin drug, or other substitute, if a person is allergic to penicillin. Full recovery is expected for the treated Marines.

(Reported by Hil Anderson in Los Angeles)