|
Dozens of schools Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/111202_local_infection.htmlhttp://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/111202_local_infection.html
Infection outbreak strikes dozens of students at local school
By Mark Garay
ABC13 Eyewitness News
(11/12/02) -- There's something spreading among the students in Pasadena's independent school district. Since the beginning of the school year, there have been about 50 cases of MRSA, a staph infection that is resistant to certain antibiotics and can be tough to treat.
This bacterial infection was actually discovered about two weeks into the school year. Officials believe the infection may have started with some of the team sports, like the football team.
Pam Exner has two children who have contracted a bacterial staph infection known as MRSA. She says they got it at Sam Rayburn High School where they both attend class.
Exner asserted, "Everybody at school's got it, all the football players and the dance team."
Pam says her son, who's on the football team, has had to make 20 trips to the doctor so far, and has missed about 13 days of school because of the boils that attack his skin. The symptoms first appeared two months ago.
Exner isn't happy with the way the school district is responding. "I haven't heard anything that they've done over there yet. I mean, half of the parents are really ticked off about it. I talked with three parents already, they're really mad about it."
We told Pasadena ISD Spokesman Kirk Lewis about the parents' complaints that the district hasn't done anything to correct the situation. "We've done everything we know to do," he responded.
Pasadena ISD says 29 students at Rayburn have been affected, and 50 district-wide. Officials say they took safety measures right after the initial outbreak.
Lewis told Eyewitness News, "We initially went through and cleaned all the gyms with an extra disinfectant just to try and make sure that the surfaces were clean. And then, as we began talking with the health department and the physicians, that's not the way this is contracted."
Lewis says county officials report MRSA is spread through human contact, and that could be why the football team got hit so hard. But he says the school district is doing all it can, and the kids should, too.
"Everybody bathes and takes care of themselves, but in times like this I think we just need to do a little bit more," Lewis advised.
The Harris County Health Department is sending out a questionnaire to all the parents around the school district and county-wide to try to get an idea how widespread this problem is.
Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA for short, is a type of staph infection. Most of you know it as a very common infection. Ninety percent of the time it's a simple skin infection that's easily treated. But sometimes it can be serious.
"Ninety percent of the time MRSA is a local skin and soft tissue infection, treated generally with oral antibiotics and occasionally may require drainage and an abscess," explained Dr. Sheldon Kaplan of the Baylor College of Medicine.
Probably nothing to worry about unless you see these symptoms:
Redness that spreads or begins to streak
Swelling
Enlarging infection that isn't responding to simple cream antibiotics
Fever
If your child has these symptoms, Dr. Kaplan says go to your doctor.
He says it's called methicilline resistant because it's resistant to this type of antibiotic, but other antibiotics are treating the staph infection appropriately.
- Talk about this story
- General posting board
Last Updated: Nov 13, 2002
|
|
