Thread: Another Staph Infection Death

Health officials: Student who died had staph infection
By WINNIE HU and SARAH KERSHAW | New York Times News Service
8:30 AM CDT, October 26, 2007
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NEW YORK - New York City health officials said on Thursday that a Brooklyn middle school student who died on Oct. 14 had become infected with a virulent, drug-resistant strain of bacteria that is primarily spread in hospitals but that in recent years has surfaced increasingly in schools, gyms and other nonhospital settings.

The health officials, who said they were investigating the circumstances of the case, were unable to confirm whether the student contracted the infection at the school, Intermediate School 211 in Canarsie. The school remained open on Thursday, and the officials said that school health officials would make any decision to close it.

The school sent out a letter informing parents that a student had died from the infection, and that the school had been thoroughly cleaned. The letters also said that hand-washing was the best way to prevent infections.

"At this time the Health Department does not believe that other children are at increased risk for the infection," the letter said.

At an assembly held at the school on Thursday morning, the principal, Buffie Simmons-Peart, announced the student's death and urged that good hygiene be practiced to prevent the spread of infection.

Neither health officials nor school officials would release the identity of the student. But classmates and neighbors said he was Omar Rivera, a seventh grader. Over the last month, schools in the New York region and in other states across the country have reported cases of students infected with the bacteria, called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. Scores of schools have canceled events, closed buildings or sanitized them from top to bottom, and sent health warnings to parents by e-mail message and letter.
In most cases, the illnesses have been mild and the students, after receiving treatment, recovered. But at least three deaths have been reported, in New Hampshire, Virginia and Mississippi.

Health officials said it was unclear whether such cases were increasing or whether recent news reports had simply increased awareness of the infection. This month, a widely publicized federal report said the infection was rampant in hospitals and nursing homes, where a vast majority of cases occur, and may account for more deaths in the United States each year than HIV-AIDS.

New York City health officials said on Thursday that nonhospital cases of the infection were usually mild, and often limited to the skin. But the bacteria are highly opportunistic and can enter the bloodstream through incisions and wounds and quickly overwhelm a weakened immune system. The student who died, they said, may for some reason have been more susceptible to a serious form of the infection.

On its Web site, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises that a decision about whether to close a school because of a communicable disease should be made by school officials or by local or state health authorities. But the site advises that "in most cases, it is not necessary to close schools because of an MRSA infection in a student" and that "it is important to note that MRSA transmission can be prevented by simple measures such as hand hygiene and covering infections."

The bacteria is resistant to penicillin-type medications, but can be treated by other, more powerful antibiotic drugs.

City and state health officials say they have been hampered in their efforts to address the growing concerns about MRSA infections because doctors do not have to report cases of the bacterial infection occurring outside hospitals or nursing homes, as they do with certain types of food poisoning and sexually transmitted diseases. As a result, it is impossible to tell if the number of cases is increasing. But on Wednesday, the city's Board of Health agreed to consider requiring the reporting of nonhospital cases of staph infections.

In New Jersey, state education officials sent a memo on Monday to the superintendents of the state's 615 school districts asking them to report any individual MRSA cases to the Education Department. Since then, districts have reported about two dozen cases among students and staff in recent weeks, education officials said.

"According to the reports we have received so far, none of the incidents have been life-threatening," said Kathryn Forsyth, a department spokeswoman.

New York state education and health officials on Thursday sent a joint advisory by e-mail to more than 5,000 schools, including schools in New York City, with recommendations for preventing staph infections. The recommendations included a 17-page appendix of cleaning products known to be effective against the bacteria that cause the infection.
In New Jersey, school officials in Point Pleasant, in Ocean County, brought in infectious disease experts to address rumors and concerns from about 100 parents at a meeting on Monday after a high school student who had been out sick with skin lesions was found to have the infection. The district's four schools have been sanitized with a hospital-grade cleaning agent in the last week.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nati ... 9137.story


They won't be happy until some illegal brings in a deadly plague and wipes out half the nation.

They won't be happy until some illegal brings in a deadly plague and wipes out half the nation.

Where I live in Georgia, this is a huge topic. The level of concern is extremely high.