Drug-Resistant Staph Germ's Toll Is Higher Than Thought

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 17, 2007; A01



A dangerous germ that has been spreading around the country causes more life-threatening infections than public health authorities had thought and is killing more people in the United States each year than the AIDS virus, federal health officials reported yesterday.

The microbe, a strain of a once innocuous staph bacterium that has become invulnerable to first-line antibiotics, is responsible for more than 94,000 serious infections and nearly 19,000 deaths each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculated.

Although mounting evidence shows that the infection is becoming more common, the estimate published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association is the first national assessment of the toll from the insidious pathogen, officials said.

"This is a significant public health problem. We should be very worried," said Scott K. Fridkin, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC.

Other researchers noted that the estimate includes only the most serious infections caused by the germ, known as methicillin-resistant S taphylococcus au reus (MRSA).

"It's really just the tip of the iceberg," said Elizabeth A. Bancroft, a medical epidemiologist at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health who wrote an editorial in JAMA accompanying the new studies. "It is astounding."

MRSA is a strain of the ubiquitous bacterium that usually causes staph infections that are easily treated with common, or first-line, antibiotics in the penicillin family, such as methicillin and amoxicillin. Resistant strains of the organism, however, have been increasingly turning up in hospitals and in small outbreaks outside of heath-care settings, such as among athletes, prison inmates and children.

On Monday, Ashton Bonds, 17, of Lynch Station, Va., succumbed to MRSA, prompting officials to shut down 21 Bedford County schools today for cleaning to prevent further infections. The infection had spread to Bonds's kidneys, liver, lungs and the muscle around his heart.

The MRSA estimate is being published with a report that a strain of another bacterium, which causes ear infections in children, has become impervious to every approved antibiotic for youngsters.

"Taken together, what these two papers show is that we're increasingly facing antibiotic-resistant forms of these very common organisms," Bancroft said.

The reports underscore the need to develop new antibiotics and curb the unnecessary use of those already available, experts said. They should also alert doctors to be on the lookout for antibiotic-resistant infections so patients can be treated with the few remaining effective drugs before they develop serious complications, experts said.

MRSA, which is spread by casual contact, rapidly turns minor abscesses and other skin infections into serious health problems, including painful, disfiguring "necrotizing" abscesses that eat away tissue. The infections can often still be treated by lancing and draining sores and quickly administering other antibiotics, such as bactrim. But in some cases the microbe gets into the lungs, causing unusually serious pneumonia, or spreads into bone, vital organs and the bloodstream, triggering life-threatening complications. Those patients must be hospitalized and given intensive care, including intravenous antibiotics such as vancomycin.

In the new study, Fridkin and his colleagues analyzed data collected in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Oregon and Tennessee, identifying 5,287 cases of invasive MRSA infection and 988 deaths in 2005. The researchers calculated that MRSA was striking 31.8 out of every 100,000 Americans, which translates to 94,360 cases and 18,650 deaths nationwide. In comparison, complications from the AIDS virus killed about 12,500 Americans in 2005.

"This indicates these life-threatening MRSA infections are much more common than we had thought," Fridkin said.

In fact, the estimate makes MRSA much more common than flesh-eating strep infections, bacterial pneumonia and meningitis combined, Bancroft noted.

"These are some of the most dreaded invasive bacterial diseases out there," she said. "This is clearly a very big deal."

The infection is most common among African Americans and the elderly, but also commonly strikes very young children.

"We see these cases all the time," said Robert S. Daum, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at the University of Chicago. "In the last five weeks, I've taken care of five children who were sick enough to be hospitalized and require intensive care."

Studies have shown that hospitals could do more to improve standard hygiene to reduce the spread of the infection. Individuals can reduce their risk through common-sense measures, such as frequent hand-washing.

In the second paper, Michael E. Pichichero and Janet R. Casey of the University of Rochester in New York documented the emergence of an antibiotic-resistant strain of another bacterium known as Streptococcus pneumoniae, which causes common ear infections. Although all 11 children identified in the Rochester area with the microbe so far were successfully treated, five required an antibiotic approved only for adults, and one child was left with permanent hearing loss.

The researchers attributed the emergence of the strain to a combination of the overuse of antibiotics and the introduction of a vaccine that protects against the infection.

"The use of the vaccine created an ecological vacuum, and that combined with excessive use of antibiotics to create this new superbug," Pichichero said.



    

In recent years, the resistant germ has become more common in hospitals and it has been spreading through prisons, gyms and locker rooms, and in poor urban neighborhoods.

The new study offers the broadest look yet at the pervasiveness of the most severe infections caused by the bug, called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. These bacteria can be carried by healthy people, living on their skin or in their noses.

An invasive form of the disease is being blamed for the death Monday of a 17-year-old Virginia high school senior. Doctors said the germ had spread to his kidneys, liver, lungs and muscles around his heart.

Dodging superbugs

Good hygiene is the best way to avoid infection from a potentially dangerous drug-resistant germ called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.

This staph infection sometimes first appears on the skin as a red, swollen pimple or boil that may be painful or have pus. It can be spread by close skin-to skin contact or by touching surfaces contaminated with the germ.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises:

• Keep your hands clean by washing thoroughly with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand cleaner.
• Keep cuts and scrapes clean and covered with a bandage until healed.
• Avoid contact with other people's wounds or bandages.
• Avoid sharing personal items such as towels or razors.

Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

    Cole its been around for a long time. Not that uncommon to catch in a normal hospital stay for something minor. I have know people who have gotten it.
And people who have died .

PrepGirl

    Virginia Teen Dies From Staph Infection
October 17, 2007 - 2:14pm

BEDFORD, Va. - A high school student who was hospitalized for more than a week with an antibiotic-resistant staph infection has died, prompting Bedford County to close all 21 of its schools for a thorough cleaning.

Ashton Bonds, a senior at Staunton River High School, died Monday at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital after being diagnosed with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, his mother said.

"I want people to know how sick it made my son," Veronica Bonds said.

Bedford School Superintendent James Blevins said at a news conference Tuesday that the schools will be closed Wednesday. Staunton River will be cleaned by a commercial cleaning company, and the county's other schools will be cleaned by janitorial staff.

Staph infections, including the serious MRSA strain, have spread through schools nationwide in recent weeks, according to health and education officials. Several students have been hospitalized. At least three MRSA cases have been reported in Bedford.

MRSA is a strain of staph bacteria that does not respond to penicillin and related antibiotics but can be treated with other drugs. The infection can be spread by skin-to-skin contact or sharing an item used by an infected person, particularly one with an open wound.

Many of the infections are being spread in gyms and locker rooms, where athletes _ perhaps suffering from cuts or abrasions _ share sports equipment. Ashton, 17, played football last year but was not playing this season.

Staunton River students organized a protest overnight Monday via text messages and social networking sites and took Blevins on a walking tour of the school Tuesday morning to show him how unclean the locker rooms, in particular, are.

Ashton went to Bedford Memorial Hospital on Oct. 4 after complaining of pain in his side, his mother said. He was sent home after doctors ruled out appendicitis.

Three days later, when Ashton was not feeling better, he was admitted to Bedford Memorial Hospital and later transported to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, Bonds said.

Last week doctors diagnosed Ashton with a MRSA infection that had spread to his kidneys, liver, lungs and the muscles around his heart.

"His lungs didn't recover," Bonds said.

Early Thursday morning, Ashton had to be sedated and put on a ventilator. He was about to undergo surgery to drain the infection from his lungs when doctors detected a blood clot near his heart. Bonds said the clot was inoperable.

Bonds said she was not familiar with MRSA until Ashton came home from school with a letter about the bacteria.

"I plan to research this and do something with it," she said. "I don't want his death to be in vain."


(Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

   My daughters mother in law contacted mrsa last year after having back surgery in a hospital in Oregon, Not only did we almost lose her, she was sent home with months of antibiotics intravenously. I have never seen anyone so ill. They had to remove all the hardware out of her back and leave a good size opening for drainage, she is just not recovering.
    Same thing just happened to her best friends husband, 2 months ago, simple knee replacement also in an Oregon Hospital. He contacted Mrsa and immediately went into renal failure within days. They have removed his hardware from his knee too, he is not recovering as good, Lost one of his kidneys, and they still have not been able to put a knee in for him. scares me to death !

this was on our local news in san diego today


'Superbug' Deaths Could Surpass AIDS


Report Says Incident Rate 32 Infections Per 100,000 People

A new government study out Tuesday said more than 90,000 Americans could get the potentially deadly "superbug" each year. It enters the bloodstream or turns into the so-called flesh-eating disease.

The overall incidence rate is about 32 invasive infections per 100,000 people. An editorial in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, which published the study, calls that number "astounding."

Researchers found more than half the cases were in the health care system. Open wounds and exposure to medical equipment are major ways the bug spreads.

In recent years, the drug-resistant germ has become more common in hospitals and has also been spreading through gyms, locker rooms, prisons and poor urban neighborhoods.

One of the study's co-authors says the findings underscore the need for better prevention measures, including curbing the overuse of antibiotics and improving hand-washing and other hygiene procedures.

    

Six High School Football Players Diagnosed With MRSA

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   Deadly superbug is here ” why isn't it tracked?   

Thursday, October 18, 2007 - Page updated at 02:02 AM



ERIKA SCHULTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Anna DeBord, 1, is back home after spending five nights in a hospital with the superbug.




For more information

Public Health � Seattle & King County MRSA fact sheet : www.metrokc.gov/health/

prevcont/mrsa.htm

"Living with MRSA" booklet: www.unc.edu/depts/spice/

LivingWithMRSA.pdf
Deadly superbug is here why isn't it tracked?

By Carol M. Ostrom
Seattle Times health reporter

Instead of going to her first birthday party, little Anna DeBord spent the weekend in the hospital with a superbug.

Anna had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, a pathogen that has learned to thrive even when treated with the most common antibiotics. At Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center, doctors gave Anna more-powerful antibiotics and performed surgery on her skin infection.

But her battle with MRSA at Children's won't be tallied by public-health officials or show up on reports tracking infectious diseases.

Unlike mumps or measles, MRSA cases need not be reported to public-health authorities in this state, even though health officials say they've been aware for years of the growing threat. A study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that the most severe infections caused by this bug kill more than 18,000 Americans a year more than die of AIDS.

The numbers much larger than previously believed set off a round of finger-pointing and blame-placing.

Why aren't all hospitals screening incoming patients, as they do in other countries, and isolating and treating those carrying the bug so it doesn't spread? Why don't lawmakers require hospitals and perhaps schools, nursing homes and prisons to report cases to public-health agencies so they can help control it? What has the nation's top disease-control agency, the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), been doing while the Staphylococcus aureus bug has grown so resistant to antibiotics?

"It's inertia," charges infection-control crusader Betsy McCaughey, chairwoman of the New York-based Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. "For many years, it was assumed that infection was the inevitable risk you faced when you went into the hospital. Now, the evidence is compelling that as many as 90 percent of these infections are preventable through cleaning and screening."

McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor of New York state, says "the CDC's lax guidelines and failure to adequately count the number of hospital infections are largely to blame for this problem. They have given hospitals an excuse to do too little."

The CDC disputes that, saying it asks hospitals to document that they're reducing the rate of MRSA infections. But some activists say that gives hospitals too little public accountability.

Lisa McGiffert, director of Consumers Union's Stop Hospital Infections campaign, argues that MRSA can't be stopped unless it's tracked.

"Some people say, 'We know it's a problem; we don't have to count,' " she says. "But we've been kind of denying it is a problem. Denial is a dangerous thing when it comes to antibiotic resistance," because these bugs are so dangerous. "You cannot solve a problem until you're aware of the extent of the problem."

A hospital-reporting law passed by the Legislature earlier this year does not target MRSA. Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Roy, says he's planning to sponsor a bill in the next session requiring specific reporting of MRSA not only by hospitals but by nursing homes and other facilities.

For now, the only numbers come from voluntary efforts. In Pierce County, a years-long tracking of MRSA cases, spurred by a core group of hospital-infection specialists, public-health officials and local health providers, has produced startling results.

"Pierce County is leading the nation" in tracking, says Marcia Patrick, director of infection prevention and control for the MultiCare Health System. "We've got stuff that nobody else has, that other places are just getting caught up with."

Staph is a common bug, often living in people's noses or on shower benches, bed rails or lab coats. Over the years, because of what experts say is overuse of antibiotics in people and animals, the bug has grown increasingly resistant to common antibiotics.

"We recognized a long time ago that MRSA was going to be a really hot problem," Patrick says. "If you're not doing surveillance, how do you know?"

As a result of the voluntary reports by Pierce County hospital systems, Patrick says, "we have data that most counties have no clue about."

What that data shows is "very alarming," Patrick says: Staph is becoming increasingly antibiotic-resistant, and the resistant version is much more common.

The data have pushed some providers, such as MultiCare, which operates Tacoma General Hospital, to start screening new patients for MRSA.

The efforts, along with isolating patients with MRSA and "major work on improving hand hygiene," have helped MultiCare decrease rates of MRSA despite growing numbers overall, she says.

Experiments in this country and practices in others have shown that vigorous screening of incoming patients and other patient-safety measures can drastically reduce MRSA infections in the hospital.

But the CDC's MRSA expert, Dr. John Jernigan, said the CDC is providing demanding guidance that is geared toward reducing MRSA rates. "Isn't that what we want?" he asks.

Although many blame hospitals for refusing to track MRSA infections, Carol Wagner, vice president for patient safety for the Washington State Hospital Association, says her organization has encouraged tracking of multi-drug-resistant organisms, including MRSA. But she adds: "It is not beneficial to track only in hospitals; it needs to be communitywide."

For many looking at this problem, the question is whether money spent tracking and reporting could be better spent on prevention.

"Is the goal to count, or is the goal to reduce infections?" asks Jude Van Buren, an epidemiologist with the Washington State Department of Health. "The health-care dollar never really gets bigger - you take from something to do something else."

Public-health experts already know MRSA is a problem, Van Buren says. Getting more numbers "is not really going to give us any more information," she says.

One-year-old Anna DeBord is blissfully unaware of all the debate. She came home from the hospital Wednesday and seems fine, said her mother, Liz DeBord.

Now, Liz is spraying Anna's room with Lysol and washing all her sheets, she said. "We still have no idea, absolutely no idea, how she got it."

Carol M. Ostrom: 206-464-2249 or costrom@seattletimes.com

Copyright � 2007 The Seattle Times Company

    
    
    

    Drug-Resistant Staph Infections Reaching Epidemic Levels in Some Parts of U.S.
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Oct. 19 (HealthDay News) -- Infections with the drug-resistant staph germ called MRSA are approaching epidemic levels in some parts of the United States, a federal epidemiologist says.



Hageman blamed the increase on rising numbers of infections -- a trend that has probably been under way for several years -- and greater awareness of the problem.

"MRSA is epidemic in some regions of the country," he said. "The highest rates are in the southern parts of the U.S., including Atlanta, Los Angeles and Texas. We first began noticing MRSA in 1999 when there were four child deaths in Minnesota and North Dakota."

"Most of these infections are minor and go away without any medical treatment," Hageman said. "It's not clear why some progress to life-threatening disease."

While most MSRA infections occur in hospitals, the number and severity of infections in the community appears to be increasing. "Some 30 percent of people have staph bacteria on their skin," Hageman said. "The extent to which it is growing in the community is just being defined."

Hageman's assessment of the problem follows publication this week of a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association that found that MRSA staph infections are more common, both in and out of hospitals, than experts had once thought. More people died in 2005 from MRSA infections in the United States than from AIDS, the journal noted.

And it follows news reports that students in school districts in at least six states have been infected with MRSA, and three of the children have died. Ashton Bonds, 17, of Bedford, Va., died Monday as a result of infection. Preschooler Catherine Bentley of Salisbury, N.H., and Shae Kiernan, 11, of Vancleave, Miss., both died from infections last week, Fox News reported.

Also, six football players at one North Carolina high school, seven students at three West Virginia schools and two teens in Connecticut have been diagnosed with MRSA infections.

MRSA infections are the leading cause of skin and soft tissue infections among hospital patients, and can result in severe and even fatal disease. These infections account for almost 19,000 deaths and more than 94,000 life-threatening illnesses each year in the United States.

Dr. Pascal James Imperato, chairman of the department of preventive medicine and community health at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in New York City, said there's a growing awareness of MRSA infections, particularly those occurring outside of hospitals.

"But there is also an increase in the number of cases, especially in the community," Imperato said. "That has come about because of changes that have occurred in MRSA in the community where, at the biological level, the organism had mutated and can cause serious illness, whereas before it didn't."

Many people carry the MRSA bacteria on their skin. But it has only become a problem since the increased use of antibiotics, which has caused the bacteria to mutate into a drug-resistant form, according to the CDC.

MRSA is resistant to methicillin, which includes several types of penicillin. MRSA infections are treated with newer antibiotics, such as vancomycin, teicoplanin and glycopeptide, although newer strains of the bacteria are becoming resistant to these antibiotics as well. This is one reason health officials warn against the over use of antibiotics, the CDC said.

The best protection from MRSA is good hygiene, including frequent hand washing, particularly for health-care workers and their patients.

For MRSA infections of the skin, the usual treatment is to have the site drained of puss and bandaged. Most of these infections do not require antibiotic treatment.

In the JAMA study, researchers found that 58.4 percent of MRSA infections from July 2004 through December 2005 were found in community health-care settings; 26.6 percent were in hospitals; 13.7 percent were infections not associated with health-care facilities; and 1.3 percent could not be classified.

Hageman said transmission of MRSA infection typically occurs in crowded areas where there's an opportunity for people to come into contact with infected items and then spread the infection to others. "These are most likely athletic settings, prisons and the military," he noted.

Imperato said young athletes are particularly vulnerable to MRSA infections.

"The reason they are more vulnerable is because [when] playing contact sports, abrasions, lacerations and contusions of the skin are common. And if their skin is colonized with MRSA it then has an easy portal of entry," he said. "In addition, they are sweating, which facilitates penetration of the organism."

Also, they're wearing and sharing equipment on which MRSA can survive, Imperato said. To prevent this form of transmission, he thinks equipment should be sterilized on a regular basis.

Imperato said young athletes should shower after each practice or game, and not share towels. "If one implements simple, sound measures -- particularly in locker rooms, gyms and among players -- it will go a long way to reducing community-acquired MRSA infections," he said.


SOURCES: Jeff Hageman, M.H.S., epidemiologist, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta; Pascal James Imperato, M.D., distinguished service professor and chairman, department of preventive medicine and community health, and director, master of public health program, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, New York City

Copyright � 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

    Student, inmates in Central Ky. may have MRSA infections
October 23, 2007 7:11 AM

LEXINGTON, Ky.
Kentucky health officials say a Lafayette High School student an inmate at the Woodford County Jail might have a strain of antibiotic resistant staph infections.



Principal Mike McKenzie sent home a letter to parents, saying a parent e-mailed him over the weekend to tell him that a student had been diagnosed with MRSA.

The school system says the diagnosis hasn't been confirmed, but the schools are reacting as though it had been to prevent any spread of infection.

Likewise, the jail outbreak hasn't been confirmed, but an inmate who underwent surgery on two large open sores yesterday told the Lexington Herald-Leader by telephone a doctor told him the infection was staph.

Woodford County Jailer Gary Gilkison says he's working with the county health department in decontaminating the jail as a precaution.

    Hemp field student treated for MRSA
Child has returned to Landisville Primary

By MADELYN PENNINO, Staff
Intelligencer Journal

Published: Oct 23, 2007 3:07 AM EST

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - A student at Landisville Primary is back at school after being treated for a MRSA infection, Brenda Becker, Hem****eld School District superintendent, said Monday.

MRSA, or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, is an infection resistant to penicillin and other antibiotics.

The elementary school student, Becker said, was cleared by the family's physician to return to school Friday.

Becker, who learned of the incident Monday morning, said students and teachers were never at risk of infection.

"The location of the wound was a part of the student's body that was always covered," Becker said. "There was no way contact could have been made."

Becker said school nurses and Dr. Scott Snyder, the school physician, have been monitoring the child's wound.

MRSA (pronounced "mersa") can be treated by using certain antibiotics. Simple measures, such as regular hand washing with antibacterial soap, can help keep the infection at bay.

MRSA has recently been diagnosed in several students in the county.

Last week, Burrowes Elementary School informed parents that MRSA had been diagnosed in one of its students.

Three Eastern Lancaster County School District students recently were found to have the infection.

A staph infection that might be MRSA also was diagnosed in a Conestoga Valley School District student, according to district officials.

Becker said that because MRSA has received so much media attention in the last few weeks, the district has been researching ways to better protect students and staff.

Becker said the district's custodial staff will continue to clean areas such as doorknobs and handrails on a daily basis.

"Those areas that are not typically cleaned on a daily basis will be cleaned more often," Becker said.

Becker said that because MRSA is prevalent among athletes, she has alerted all school coaching staffs.

Parents of all elementary school students took home a letter Monday informing parents of the infected student. Secondary students will take home a similar letter today.

A copy of the letter sent to parents of elementary school students and additional information about MRSA are available on the district Web site, www.hem****eldsd.org.

Friday, following reports about MRSA outbreaks in schools and other community settings nationwide, Health Secretary Dr. Calvin B. Johnson said there are measures people can take to reduce the risk of contracting or spreading MRSA.

Health Secretary Dr. Calvin Johnson " … and frequently" / PA Radio News Service


Health Secretary Dr. Calvin Johnson " … getting MRSA" / PA Radio News Service
E-mail: mpennino@lnpnews.com


    

      Print | Close
4 cases of staph in North Jersey schools
Tuesday, October 23, 2007

By MICHAEL GARTLAND and JIM WRIGHT
STAFF WRITERS


At least four North Jersey students have been diagnosed with a highly resistant and sometimes fatal bacterial infection.

The staph infection, known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, has been associated with three deaths among students nationwide in the past two weeks. It has forced schools in a half-dozen states to close to contain outbreaks.

A 19-year-old student at the Norman A. Bleshman Regional Day School in Paramus has been hospitalized for three weeks with MRSA, according to his family.

After school officials learned of his diagnosis, they ordered the school closed on Friday. On Monday, they learned that another special-needs student also had the infection.

"This afternoon, we contacted all of the parents," Jennifer Lee, a liaison for the schools superintendent, said on Monday. She said workers had spent the weekend disinfecting the school.

Lee would not provide any information about the students, but the 19-year-old's family said he is being treated at Hackensack University Medical Center.

RELATED LINKS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Jersey Department of Health: MRSA fact sheet

Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007
Drug-resistant staph found at Iona

Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007
Study: Staph deaths may exceed AIDS

* * *
Symptoms
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

� Red bumps resemble pimples, boils or spider bites.

� The area can be warm, swollen and painful.

� Bumps grow into pus-filled abscesses.

� Fever, chills, headaches, muscle aches, chills and shortness of breath.

* * *
Facts on MRSA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How it's spread: Skin-to-skin contact and contact with contaminated surfaces.

Why it's serious: The bacteria can burrow deep into the body, causing potentially life-threatening infections in bones, joints, surgical wounds, the bloodstream, heart valves and lungs.

Treatment: MRSA can usually be treated by draining the abscess at the doctor's office. Some antibiotics treat more serious infections.

How to prevent the spread of MRSA: Wash your hands frequently with soap and warm water, shower after exercising. Avoid sharing towels, razors and other personal items. Keep wounds bandaged.

Sources: Mayo Clinic, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"He's fighting for his life," said the student's mother, who requested that her name not be used.

Meanwhile, a middle school student in Clifton and a high school athlete in Hillsdale have also been diagnosed with MRSA recently.

At a press conference Monday afternoon, Clifton school officials stressed that the student at Christopher Columbus Middle School is not contagious and parents should not be alarmed.

They described how they began disinfecting locker rooms on Friday and will continue to use a bleach-based product to help disinfect other parts of the middle school, Assistant Superintendent Ira Oustatcher said. The district also sent letters to all the district's sports coaches asking them to wash equipment, he said.

At Pascack Valley High School, Principal Barbara Sapienza noted in an Oct. 19 letter to parents that one student-athlete had contracted MRSA and another had been diagnosed with an unspecified staph infection. One of those students had to be hospitalized, the letter said.

Sapienza told parents she had ordered the locker rooms, handrails and doorknobs sanitized.

Tom Gattoni, the school's athletic director, said the students have both returned to school.

"They're fine," he said.

The reports of illnesses among North Jersey students comes amid a flurry of outbreaks across the nation. In the past two weeks, students in Virginia, New Hampshire and Mississippi have died.

MRSA has long been a problem in hospitals, but federal health officials noted last week that it appears to be spreading outside of health care settings. Some 90,000 people are infected with the potentially deadly MRSA each year, officials said.

In schools, athletes seem to be particularly vulnerable because of their close contact with other students. Last week, Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y., acknowledged that nine of its athletes had contracted staph infections.

Two students from Vernon Township High and one from Point Pleasant Borough High also are being treated for MRSA.

The state Health Department said that as of late Monday afternoon, New Jersey had two schools with two confirmed cases -- a school in Vernon and a school in Wenonah in Gloucester County in South Jersey. Thomas Slater, a department spokesman, said that "we may have half a dozen other cases we have heard about but haven't confirmed yet."

Slater downplayed the seriousness of the outbreaks, saying that they are very common in schools, prisons and nursing homes -- "anywhere people are in close quarters."

"The real news is we have cases every day of MRSA," Slater said. "It's being highlighted because a CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] article came out last week, and then there was a death of a child in Virginia."

But the mother of the infected 19-year-old from the Bleshman School is concerned that health and school officials are not communicating effectively enough. She said that the doctors treating her son did not notify the school of his illness. She said she finally did so in the beginning of October.

Despite its name, the illness is not resistant to treatment. It is only resistant to some types of antibiotics, such as penicillin and methicillin.

"It's absolutely treatable," said Carol Prawetz, the district's school nurse coordinator.

Slater said, "There are cases out there. They are isolated. People go to the doctors, they get treated, they get better."

Karen Keller contributed to this article.



Copyright � 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

      

Another student treated for MRSA


Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Stewart: Central Elementary student has staph infection

By Zac Goldstein

Staff Writer

A Central Elementary School student is the latest to contract a staph infection, Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Superintendent Tony Stewart said Monday.

In a letter sent to all parents in the school district, Stewart said his office was notified by Central School Principal Terrell Jones Monday morning that a student at the school had contracted a staph infection.

He said the student�s mother notified the school of the diagnosis. Stewart did not release information about the student�s grade or current medical condition.

Monday�s report comes on the heels of other reports of staph infections at other area schools. Ten Elizabeth City State University students were treated recently for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a type of bacteria that is resistant to conventional antibiotics.

A student at Griggs Elementary School in the Currituck County Schools was diagnosed with MRSA last Wednesday. In addition, a Virginia school was closed after a teenager died following an MRSA infection.

According to Stewart, it has not been established where or when the Central Elementary School student contracted the infection. However, the school district has taken steps to make sure the schools are getting a good cleaning.

Principals, athletic directors and custodians met late last week to review cleaning procedures and discuss the threat posed by MRSA, Stewart said. Each school was issued a case of disinfectant that is effective against the bacteria and Central was cleaned over the weekend. In addition, Stewart said custodians have begun using KalVac cleaning systems for school bathrooms and the school system has remained in contact with the health department.

�We try to be one step ahead,� he said.

The risk of contracting MRSA can be reduced by frequent handwashing and not sharing personal items. For more information, visit www.charmeck.org/departments/health+department/top+news/mrsa.htm or contact your child�s school.

(Contact Zac Goldstein at zgoldstein@coxnc.com)








Find this article at:
http://www.dailyadvance.com/local/content/news/stories/2007/10/23/1023ECPPSstaphZG.html

IMHO comment : Survival guide to not getting MRSA - wash your hands. We did several groups in hospitals and monitored the activities of health professionals. When asked - everyone always washes their hands. When watched - well - lets put it this way

MRSA can easily survive for hours outside the body. Ever notice nurses wiping the blood pressure cuffs they use meticulously as hundreds of patients flow through?

What may happen less in regular hospitals - is much worse in convalescent hospitals -ever watched nurses aides moving from bed to bed changing patients when they have 13 patients and count the number of time they actually stop and wash their hands surgical style.. or is it if ever, a quick wipe and rinse does which not cut it - and then proceed t o shave  patient X , wipe  Y's  tush, and  brush  Z's teeth.

Not a pretty sight.

Nope and not a pretty outcome. Doorknobs are not your friends, nor car handles, money is a classic germ spreader, etc. Even those cute little dogs. So before picking up those beloved children and after - wash your hands.

The way things are (Monk style) I would do a complete shower after visiting granny at the hospital and sitting in the middle of MRSA central.

We tell people over and over. Just a pinch here and a finger in your mouth-and its showtime.

This is a case of where you can do something about something instead of simply feeling powerless.

Sounding a little motherish today perhaps.. but saving lives is my top agenda- and this can save a lot of them.

Discover Magazine

The Biology of ... Hand-Washing

Your Mother Was Right: In an age when antibiotics don't kill germs very well, soap does

by Gurney Williams III

Seen under ultraviolet light, simulated germs glow from a hand�s wrinkles, cuticles, and�subungual spaces,� even after a normal hand-washing.

Zung Wan Kim, a surgeon in Port Chester, New York, preps for surgery like a prizefighter before a major bout. First he punches a soap dispenser button with his foot and delivers a low blow to a faucet switch with his knee. Then he rubs the soap over his hands for more than a minute and rinses it off with graceful left and right hooks under the stream of water. He jabs at his nails with a sterile brush for more than another minute, rinses, scrubs his hands with a sterile sponge, rinses again, and then repeats the initial wash and rinse. Ding! The bell goes off on Kim's timer, ending a full five-minute round of hand-washing. 

Seem obsessive? Sure, until you consider that the life of the hernia patient next door depends on Kim�s routine. And recent events have shown that even ordinary hand-washing may once again become a matter of getting really sick or staying well. In August of this year, federal health experts reported that four children in Minnesota and North Dakota were fatally infected by Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium easily passed through hand-to-hand contact. A strain of S. aureus has in recent years become resistant to the popular antibiotic methicillin. Yet any good hand-washing can still send it down the drain.

Lulled by the success of antibiotics in general, Americans have come to think of compulsory hand-washing as a thing of the past�a holdover from the sterile, hyperhygienic 1950s. But more than half the staph infections caught by hospital patients are now resistant to methicillin (up from 2 percent in 1974), and according to some epidemiologists, the deaths in Minnesota and North Dakota are just the tip of the iceberg. �With the possible exception of immunization,� says Ralph Cordell, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, �hand-washing is the most effective disease-preventing measure anyone can practice.�

posted by Medclinician