BUTLER TWP — A confirmed case of MRSA in a Butler County Community College employee resulted in the college’s main campus being closed until Thursday while the affected building is sanitized, school officials said.

Late Tuesday the college sent a notice to staff and students announcing its main campus at 107 College Drive would be closed through today after a case of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureaus, or MRSA, was found in the field house.

BC3 President Nick Neupauer said this morning college officials were notified late Tuesday by the employee about the infection, and the affected employee “basically tracked a lot of time spent in the field house,” which is why the college’s announcement focused on that particular building.

The field house is on the campus’ north side, and also houses a student fitness center, according to the college’s website.

Neupauer said overnight the college brought in a company to sanitize the building, and staff members sanitized the rest of BC3’s main campus as well. He called the decision to shut down the college’s main campus a safety-minded one that was made after school officials notified state and federal health officials.

“This was absolutely a proactive step ... to isolate the building,” Neupauer said. “We decided to play it safe.”

The closure is an extraordinary step that goes further than recommendations of both state and CDC officials when it comes to MRSA in schools. Both the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the CDC say that school closures or keeping those with confirmed cases of the infection from attending classes aren’t usually necessary.

According to the department, single cases of MRSA are not reportable diseases in Pennsylvania, meaning that institutions aren’t required to notify state officials of a single case. However, the state does require that outbreaks of the infection be reported.

There was no information immediately available this morning on the employee’s condition.

MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria, is most frequently found in hospitals or health care facilities like nursing homes and dialysis centers, according to the state Department of Health. It is spread by skin-to-skin and hand-to-skin contact, as well as through the sharing of items like towels, razors, athletic equipment, clothes and illicit drug paraphernalia.

The infection most often presents as a skin or soft tissue infection like a boil or abscess, but can also cause more serious infections like blood stream infections or pneumonia in people of all ages.