Otherwise known as MRSA, and also widely known as a staff infection. It's also a bitch. Dripping Springs ISD sent the student athletes home with a letter as the school started the arduous process of disinfecting the school. Last week, a new study was released that suggested MRSA could be more deadly than the AIDS epidemic.

There is a high percentage of health care workers that have MRSA. I know, I was one. During the second week as an executive director for a health care organization, one of our nurses tested positive for MRSA. This particular strain of the staph infection was causing open, weeping sores on her arm and legs. She was immediately quarantined and put on a strong antibiotic that she claimed made her violently ill.

We immediately pulled out an action plan. I pulled all nurses and other health care workers and had them tested for infection. Two other workers tested positive that day and we immediately sent them home. I then had the administrative staff get their nasal swabs and we began the process of disinfecting the entire office with a bleach solution.

Every surface had to be wiped down. We tested all patients that had come in contact with the infected nurses and none tested positive. This told us that our nurses were practicing good technique in infection control techniques.

The tests for the administrative and executive team came back. I was the only one that tested positive for MRSA. I quarantined myself and spent four days on an antibiotic so strong it made me violently ill. I was lucky, I did not have any open or seeping wounds from the experience.

Every employee, clinical or administrative, had to pass a "hand-washing" and infection control technique test before being allowed back to work. That was a hella month or so.

But, I was very proud of the way we handled it locally and how the organization as a whole took it seriously and embraced an investigation.