Recent MRSA cases in Southwest Virginia have led school districts across the region to beef up their sanitizing efforts, even though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asserts that cases are relatively rare among young people.

Though officials with the Virginia Department of Health say they have no reason to believe the antibiotic-resistant staph infection is any more of a public health threat now than it has been in the past, they also acknowledge that the statistics they have available to judge the threat are far from complete.

The health department has not confirmed that the death this week of 17-year-old Staunton River High School student Ashton Bonds was MRSA-related, but his mother has said doctors diagnosed him with the infection.

At least 11 cases of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus have been reported in teenagers or children in Southwest Virginia over the past six months.

According to a CDC study released Tuesday, invasive MRSA infections are extremely rare among people between the ages of 5 and 17, affecting about 1 in 100,000. For a death to result in that age group is even rarer.

Virginia health officials have said that the number of MRSA outbreaks reported this year shows no signs of an increase from previous years. Four outbreaks were recorded in 2005, five in 2006 and three so far this year, said VDH spokesman Robert Parker. An outbreak is defined loosely as a larger-than-expected number of illnesses happening in the same time and place.

But officials also acknowledged that their numbers do not paint a complete picture. Virginia law does not require hospitals to report individual staph infections to the health department, so there are no statistics to show whether occurrences of the disease are increasing.

And though outbreaks are reported, there is no guarantee that the health department is notified of all of them.

The health department has not classified the recent incidents in Bedford County as an outbreak, Parker said. At least five cases of MRSA infections have been reported in the county this fall.

It's unclear whether the CDC report, which states that MRSA is a greater health threat than previously believed, will affect the state health department's assessment of the situation in Southwest Virginia. Parker said officials were still evaluating the report Tuesday evening.

The bacteria that cause staph and MRSA infections are quite common. The infection is spread by skin-to-skin contact, or by touching a surface touched recently by someone who has the staph bacterium.

To reduce the risks, schools in Roanoke, Roanoke County, Botetourt County and Salem are cleaning their facilities more often, especially locker rooms and showers. Roanoke County and Salem have also started disinfecting school buses after transporting athletes.

The school districts are urging students to wash regularly and are encouraging football players to clean their equipment and uniforms after practices.

In Roanoke County, which had one confirmed case of MRSA at Northside High School three weeks ago, officials have taken a particularly aggressive approach, installing antibacterial soap dispensers near locker rooms and telling students to take a couple of squirts before and after workouts.

Dr. T.K. Miller, an orthopedist at Roanoke Orthopaedic Center who provides sports medicine services to area high schools, said he inspected every Cave Spring High School football player and referred those with suspicious abrasions for treatment.

Miller and others have also told athletes to shower immediately after every practice, a routine that previously was not universally followed.

"It sounds silly," he acknowledged. Still, he said, with the recent well-publicized cases of MRSA, "I'm pretty sure we've gotten their attention."

In Rockbridge County, where four students have been diagnosed with MRSA over the past two weeks, the school system hired an outside cleaning crew, said Cindy Crance, the county's director of instruction, who also supervises the school nurses.

The crew helped custodians work through the night to scrub down Natural Bridge Elementary and Rockbridge County High schools, which had two cases each.

But the school system's efforts have not reassured Cindy Beverly, mother of two Natural Bridge Elementary students.

Her 8-year-old son was sent home from school Monday with a questionable irritation on his nose that is being tested for MRSA, she said.

"It's a total nightmare for a parent to send their child to school wondering if this is something they are going to come home with," she said.