Atlanta

Skin infection outbreaks worry health officials

Life behind bars — with its close contact and sharing of soap and towels — has contributed to several prison and jail outbreaks of a hard-to-treat skin infection that health officials fear easily could spread to the outside.

Staphylococcus aureus — a strain of staph infection that resists drugs — had previously only been found in hospitals. But now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is finding infections among military recruits, sports teams and particularly in prisons and jails.

The CDC said the concern about the further spread of outbreaks that begin behind bars was due to the fact that one in every 142 U.S. residents was in prison or jail last year.

Usually mild, the infections can lead to life-threatening blood or bone infections.

Los Angeles

New frog species found

A new species of bright purple frog — a chubby blob with a pointy snout — has been discovered in southern India.

The amphibian is so different from known frogs it has been placed into a new family of frogs called Nasikabatrachidae, from Greek for “nose frog.”

The find, by S.D. Biju of the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute of Kerala, India, and Franky Bossuyt of Vrije Universiteit in Brussels, is reported in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.

The frog is described as having “a bloated body, stubby limbs, tiny eyes and a protruding snout.”