Student's death is linked to MRSA

Health officials stress that a case of drug-resistant pneumonia that killed a 20-year-old Western Washington University student this week is very unusual and isolated, but they are also warning the public and health providers to be vigilant as flu season picks up in Washington.

Typically, the flu makes people sick with coughs, sore throats and muscle aches for five or six days, then they begin feeling better, said Dr. Emily Gibson, director of Western's Student Health Center. But if what seems like a lung infection sets in, pay attention and seek care.

Chris Feden, 20, a student from Tenino, Thurston County, died Wednesday night from pneumonia caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a bug known commonly as MRSA, health officials said.

Feden went to the health center on the afternoon of Feb. 14 after about two weeks of a lingering cough, said Gibson. His condition had suddenly worsened the night before. He had a fever, was vomiting and coughing up blood.

He was taken to intensive care at St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham, but it was too late for antibiotics to reverse the damage, Gibson said. Unlike some other bacteria, MRSA causes a "shock reaction" because it produces toxins.

Dr. Maxine Hayes, health officer for the Washington State Department of Health, said healthy people can carry the MRSA bug on their skin or in their noses and not be aware of it.

But when people catch the flu, which has become widespread in Washington over the past two weeks, it can weaken their immune response and make them more susceptible to infections from bacteria, including MRSA.

"I find a lot of people still think that influenza is just a bad cold," Hayes said. But 36,000 people die of it every year in the U.S.

Gibson said the campus health center has seen "a lot of sick students" with viral influenza over the past four weeks.

"We're listening to a lot of lungs," she said.

But so far, there have been few serious complications.

Typically, the health center doesn't find much MRSA, either, Gibson said.

Out of 30 cultures for skin infections for the quarter, only four have been positive for MRSA.

Hayes and Gibson said flu shots, which are still available, can reduce the risk of contracting a secondary infection such as one from MRSA.

But Western has only given out about 750 of the shots among a student body of 13,000, Gibson said.

"It's not the first thing on every college student's mind."

Carol M. Ostrom: 206-464-2249 or costrom@seattletimes.com