This week, a goverment report said that a "superbug" called MRSA could soon kill as many people in the U.S. as AIDS.

The reports brought to the front examples of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus auerus outbreaks from around the country.

Near Indianapolis, more than 100 high school students were sent home Wednesday after they found out that one of their fellow classmates might have the infection, television station WRTV reported.

A school television broadcast alerted students that one of their classmates, a Richmond High School football player, was being treated.

"Most students left about halfway through school. They were scared. Some of them were crying," said student Richard Hurley.

Doctors were awaiting lab results to confirm if the teen has the staph infection, but the school system is acting as if he does as a precautionary measure.

The school was sanitized, but the football player is still going to class.

"The physician says it's not contagious if it is covered with bandages or some such treatment," said Allen Bourff, Richmond Schools superintendent. "We have every reason to believe that's the way it's been dealt with."

MRSA often spreads through wounds and equipment in healthcare settings, or in group settings such as sports teams where people are in close contact.

Wayne County Public Health Officer Dr. David Keller said staph requires direct contact with the sore to spread to others.

"At a school with healthy students, and especially if they keep their hands clean and avoid contact, it's very unlikely that it would amount to much at all," Keller said.

The school contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and was told to clean every classroom and hallway.

Scrape Gets Infected

In Nashville, television station WSMV reported that a simple scrape on the knee landed a 5-year-old girl in the hospital in critical condition.

"(She was) a simple child playing, having fun. She falls down and scrapes her knee," said father Julian Clemmons.

That injury on Tuesday put Julianna Clemmons in the hospital by Friday.

"She's been under care and dialysis, ventilator and plasma exchange," said Clemmons.

"What has emerged is an organism that lives predominantly in hospitals until now, and it's an organism that's resistant to many antibiotics and many newer generation antibiotics even," said Dr. Geoffrey Fleming of the Vanderbilt Pediatric Care.

Doctors recommend washing children's wounds and keeping them covered.

Doctors said if a scrape turns red or boil-like and swells, a doctor should be contacted.

Preschooler Dies

In Concord, N.H., television station WMUR said MRSA was implicated in the death of a 4-year-old girl in Salisbury, N.H.

"I know that, basically, it's something you don't want to have your kids catch, because it can be deadly," said parent Lisa Turgon, of Penacook, N.H. "Some versions can be deadly."

Turgon has three children and said she wonders how she can keep them safe from a threat she can't see.

"I can only do so much," she said. "They have to go to school, but I'll be a little more cautious of their hands in the mouth at the store."

Boscawen Elementary School waited a month before notifying parents that a student had contracted a MRSA infection. Officials said they were following the advice and protocol of the Department of Public Health, and to date, no other student has contracted the illness.

"Our radar is up," Superintendent Mike Martin said. "We're watching for things and watching daily attendance, but it's pretty much business as usual."

"It's by no fault of our own, except health care providers using antibiotics inappropriately or patients asking for antibiotics inappropriately and providers not knowing what to do," said Mary Ann Cooney of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Steven Paris of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center said he questioned the use of thermal fogging done at Virginia schools this week after a student there died, saying the school will be contaminated as soon as students return.

"Whoever was the carrier will still be the carrier," Paris said.

Medical experts said it's important to understand that people who die from MRSA are usually immune-compromised already, with systems weakened by another infection or disease.

Cleaning Team Facilities

In Winston-Salem, N.C., Forsyth County school officials said that six high school football players were found to have MRSA infections, television station WXII reported.

Doug Hinson, spokesman for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, said the incidents occurred in September at East Forsyth High School and that the school is cleaning and sanitizing wrestling mats, locker rooms and football pads.

School administrators sent a letter to parents that contained information about the outbreak and methods for dealing with infection.

It is the same condition that shut down several Virginia schools on Wednesday.

Ashton Bonds, a 17-year-old senior at Staunton River High School in Bedford County, Va., died Monday after being diagnosed with MRSA.