The Pennsylvania Department of Health has "pretty much" wrapped up its investigation of an outbreak of a skin infection at Thiel College, Greenville, without locating a source of the bacteria or why it infected 10 football players.

While the state will remain in touch with Thiel and UPMC Horizon, Greenville, the last hope for determining a source will be if investigators from the federal Centers for Disease Control discover something in their notes they had overlooked, said Richard McGarvey, health department spokesman.

"You kind of hope initially you’d find something right away, which didn’t happen," he said.

"The woman from the CDC indicated we may never know the source of it," said Thiel spokeswoman Betsy Fontaine.

The last of two CDC investigators left Monday after a monthlong visit, she said.

Ten football players contracted a staph infection known as methicillin resistant staph aureus, said Ms. Fontaine and McGarvey. They were treated with a synthetic antibiotic. Seven were hospitalized and three others were treated.

At least two had reoccurrences and are still being treated, Ms. Fontaine said.

Health officials said that while the infection is not rare, it is usually found in hospitals and nursing homes among people with compromised immune systems, such as post-surgery patients.

The athletes were otherwise healthy, making this outbreak unusual, officials said.

The names of the athletes were not released by Thiel or the hospital because of confidentiality policies.

Thiel closed and then disinfected some athletic facilities, and the health department supplied a special soap for use by the football players.

"They pretty much followed our advice," McGarvey said of Thiel.

The infection is spread by direct contact.

The first case was reported Sept. 20 and confirmed a few days later; the last was confirmed Oct. 11.

Ms. Fontaine said none of the athletes has played since the diagnosis. The team’s last game is today.

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