SMART About MRSA (10-22-07)

I’m hoping to clear a few things up. Now, I’m no doctor and have no ability to clear rashes, inflammations, or infections. But as the administrator of a building where several students have been diagnosed as having MRSA, I will try to clear up a few facts about this recent outbreak.

MRSA, or Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, is a bacterial infection that usually presents itself as a minor skin infection. There are two facts about which everyone should be clear: 1. MRSA is a bacterium that can live outside the body on surfaces and thus is easily spread, 2. MRSA should be diagnosed and treated by a doctor.

The good news is that the spread of this infection can be lessened or stopped all together with simple sanitation practices. As a school, we have always done our best to keep our facilities clean and sanitary, but this outbreak has heightened our awareness and caused us to increase our efforts. Among other things, we now require all students to use hand sanitizer in the lunch room before they are allowed to get or eat food. All classrooms are now equipped with hand sanitizers and disinfectant wipes. Locker rooms are now equipped with spray bottles filled with a bleach-and-water solution to be used frequently on locker room surfaces throughout the day. We have and will continue to fumigate our locker rooms and athletic storage areas and have applied fresh paint to pitted or exposed wood surfaces.

Perhaps the most important step we have taken to prevent and stop the spread of this bacterium is to have our coaches and custodians meet with the Country Health Nurse. We are working hard to get everyone on the same page about the seriousness of MRSA so that we can work together to keep our kids as safe as possible.

And that is why I am now writing to you. We all need to work together to be smart about MRSA. Efforts taken at school cannot be fully effective if the bacterium is allowed to persist at home or at work.

So what does it mean to be smart? It begins with sanitation. Hand washing goes a long way towards preventing the spread of germs. Washing of clothing and towels, especially PE clothing and athletic practice gear is another important step. As a school, we will continue to warn the students about the danger of leaving the gym clothes or practice gear in their lockers for long periods of time. We would appreciate any help in reminding students to have their athletic clothing washed regularly.

Our school does provide all students with clean towels and we have always warned students against sharing towels, as it is one of the most common ways for students to share a variety of germs, including MRSA. On this front, we all need to be smart about the sharing of towels.

Finally, I would like to clear up any misconceptions about the source of infection or re-infection. We all carry some form of the staph bacteria, and it is estimated that a third of the population carry MRSA. It usually only makes its presence known when the immune system is weakened, and thus MRSA is seen most often in the very young, very old, or in surgical patients.

For whatever reason, we are seeing an increase in active MRSA infections among our students. Once a person is confirmed to have the bacteria in their system, that person will carry it for the rest of their lives. It can show up again in the form of a skin infection at anytime, regardless of whether or not additional contact has been made.

We all just need to be smart about MRSA. We in school will continue to do all we can to keep our facilities and equipment as clean as possible and we will continue our monitoring and communication. Being smart means working together, and together we can make a world of difference.