No staph outbreak in W.Va. county

MARTINSBURG, W.Va., Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Five students in a West Virginia county have been diagnosed with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus, but health officials are not calling it an outbreak.

Diana Gaviria, the health officer for Berkeley County, said the students are at different schools and appear to have picked up the infection independently, The Martinsburg Journal reported. Gaviria said five cases of MRSA is not actually abnormally high for the county.

The recent death of a Virginia teen has attracted attention to staph infections. But Gaviria said the infection can usually be treated easily and deaths are rare among healthy young people.