D.C. and Montgomery, Prince George’s and Fairfax Counties have posted copies of the letters and factsheets on their Web sites.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesperson Nicole Coffin said Methicillin-Resistant Staph Aureus is a fairly common infection, but some health officials are concerned because it’s resisitant to most antibiotics. And, the infection has the ability to adapt — antibiotics that worked a few years ago may not work anymore.

Garrett Lum, an epidemiologist with the D.C. Department of Health’s Division of Disease Surveillence and Investigations, said another concern is infections are popping up in unsual places. Normally, it’s a hospital-based infection, he said, but the infection has appeared in schools and recreation centers within the past 10 years.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesperson Nicole Coffin said Methicillin-Resistant Staph Aureus shouldn’t cause alarm. The media, she said, is driving the scare.

‘‘It’s not a superbug and it’s almost never life-threatning,” Coffin said. ‘‘[The infection] is drug resistent, but it’s very treatable. The problem is [the infection] is resistent to the class of drugs physicians grab first. There are other drugs, however, that treat [Methicillin-Resistant Staph Aureus] very well.”

Coffin believes the media uproar is the result of a Journal of the American Medical Association article printed about a month ago regarding Methicillin-Resistant Staph Aureus — in rare cases — is potentially life-threatening. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also posted an article on its Web site. When the infection started popping up in local schools, media members began researching the bacteria and found the articles.

Even though the article sspecifically stated that it’s extremely rare for the staph infection to be fatal, Coffin said media members have headlined nightly newscasts with staph infection warnings and alarmed the public of an bacteria that has been around for hundreds of years.

Even so, Montgomery County Public Information Officer Mary Anderson said local residents should frequently wash their hands to help prevent infection or spreading bacteria.

The rash appears as a small boil, almost looking like poison ivy. In a school setting, nurses treat the rash immediately, then defer to parents for follow-on care, Anderson said.

Since most of the patients who receive care at the National Naval Medical Center, doctors and nurses are staying informed about local developments.

Lt. Kelli Nayak, a Bethesda pediatrician, said the infection has become more resistent to antibiotics because people rely on them, even in cases where medication is not needed.

‘‘It’s a skin bug,” Nayak said. ‘‘It somehow mutated over years and years of antibiotic [treatment]. So, it has become a harder illness to treat because it has become so resistant to penicillin and other antibiotics.”