Thread: Health Alert: MRSA Super Bug Death Closes Virgina Schools

Health Alert: Virginia Super Bug Death Closes Virgina Schools
US Researchers Report Sharp Rise in Drug Resistant Infection Deaths - CALL FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLIC AWARENESS

Virginia School District Closes - Entire School Disinfected

"I can confirm that there was a Prince William County high school student, within the last two weeks, that had MRSA," said Lucy Caldwell, Northern Virginia regional spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Health

Warning letters sent home to parents in Weston, CT, Rome, NY ...

About the MRSA Bug...finding its way into the school system Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) is a type of staph that is resistant to certain antibiotics. These antibiotics include methicillin and other more common antibiotics such as oxacillin, penicillin and amoxicillin. Staph infections, including MRSA, occur most frequently among persons in hospitals and healthcare facilities (such as nursing homes and dialysis centers) who have weakened immune systems but is now making its way into the nation's school system. Staph or MRSA infections in the community are usually manifested as skin infections, such as pimples and boils, and occur in otherwise healthy people.

Hygiene steps to help prevent infection...
Practice good hygiene:

Keep hands clean by washing thoroughly with soap and water
or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

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.

Research Update - U.S. researchers have estimated that nearly 19,000 people in the United States died in 2005 after being infected with a drug-resistant bacteria.

The findings appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention led the study.Researchers looked at nearly 9,000 cases of the infection and 1,600 in-hospital deaths among patients infected with the bacteria called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. They estimate that more than 94,000 people in the United States were infected with the bacteria in 2005, and that those infections were associated with 18,650 deaths. They say most of the infections were related to health care treatment facilities, including hospitals and nursing homes. But the researchers say they surveyed largely urban areas and that the number of cases of invasive MRSA may be overestimated. They also caution that it is possible that the bacteria may not have caused or contributed to some of the deaths.

http://www.emergencyemail.org/newsem....asp?a=251&z=1

10 men contract staph infections in NY
By JIM FITZGERALD, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 19, 8:08 PM ET

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - Nine athletes and a coach at Iona College contracted an antibiotic-resistant staph infection, which has spread through schools nationwide, health officials said Friday.

The outbreak was under control and the one student who was hospitalized has been released, said Dr. Joshua Lipsman, the health commissioner in Westchester County, just north of New York City.

Staph infections, including the serious Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, have spread in recent weeks through schools across the nation, according to health and education officials.

A high school senior in Virginia died of the disease Monday, his mother said. And dozens of high school students and some teachers in districts around the country have contracted the illness this fall, officials have said.

Lipsman confirmed that the Iona cases were MRSA, which does not respond to penicillin and related antibiotics but can be treated with other drugs.

Cecelia Donohoe, spokeswoman for the college in New Rochelle, said all the cases had been caught early and were mild. She wouldn't identify the team, citing privacy concerns, but Lipsman said all the victims are male.

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. Lipsman said Iona was dealing properly with the infection.

He and Donohoe said team members with open wounds have been forbidden to play, the weight room had been disinfected and all students have been advised about proper hygiene, such as scrupulous hand washing and not sharing razors or towels.

MRSA began showing up years ago in hospitals before working its way into prisons, schools and other community settings. School athletes appear particularly susceptible because of cuts and scrapes, bodily contact and the sharing of equipment.

Schools where the infections have been reported have closed to be sanitized before reopening.

The government earlier this week issued its first overall estimate of diseases caused by MRSA, finding more than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly infections each year from it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071020/...5ZWmMC_BNa24cA

A boy died in NW TN from a staph infection just here recently.

It sure does suck having boils all the time. I have one or two a month come up and am currently battling one that popped up overnight about three weeks ago. I went to am/pm and asked if they would lance it there and doc said sure no problem so I told them I'd be back the next day to do it (I had to get back home to take boy to football practice), I went back the next day and the same freakin doctor who said they would said oh sorry we can't do that here i's too close to your face and there are too many nerves. Then he tried to farm me out to a dermatologist. So I told him that's not gonna happen cause I don't have insurance(which is why I'm here not at a real doctors) So he wrote me a script for 10 days of bactrim and charged me 70 bucks to get out of there. I lanced it myself and finished the script and still have a freakin golf ball on my jawline. I call it my pet lump.