Horrible new form of skin boils spreading out from Katrina area

Jun. 19--PASCAGOULA -- The number of boils -- deep skin abscesses -- being brought to the Singing River Hospital emergency room has increased to the point that nurses are commenting because so many require lancing.

Besides an increase in number, the boils are nastier, bigger and more difficult to deal with, said health professionals.

At Singing River alone, the county's largest hospital, there were 690 cases of boils at the ER in the past eight months, from the beginning of October to the end of May. That's up 215 cases from the number the ER treated during those same eight months before Katrina.

Whatever the cause, Kim Gutherz, assistant manager of nursing for the ER, said, "We have never seen so many. We've always had our fair share of them, with the shipyard and outdoor workers, but we've never seen them in numbers as we have now."
 
And where the ER used to prescribe antibiotics, many of these boils have to be lanced to relieve the pressure and then drained, sometimes with a drain inserted.
 
"They have a bad odor," Gutherz said, "a horrible odor. Lots and lots of foul-smelling drainage to them, and they seem to be larger."