Anational issue has hit close to home after recent reports linked a female Red Bank Catholic (RBC) High School student to a MRSA staph infection late last week.
The RBC student was treated and is now back in school as other cases have been reported to the Monmouth County Regional Health Commission (MCRHC) in the area, including one case at Oak Hill Academy in Middletown. Other cases have been reported in the media at a Long Branch elementary school and at Ocean Township High School.
Although reports are becoming more widely recognized, the antibiotic-resistant infection known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is not a new infection, according to health officials.
“MRSA is treatable, it’s not new, it’s been around for years. People who have skin infections need to go to their doctors, get it correctly diagnosed,” said spokesman Tom Sawyer of the N.J. Department of Health and Senior Services (NJDHSS).
MRSA is a skin infection that has become resistant to certain antibiotics and is generally minor, causing pimples, boils or other skin conditions. Left untreated, the infections can spread to the bloodstream or lungs, causing serious illness and possibly death.
Rayanne Bennett, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of Trenton, said that RBC school officials had previously notified parents with a letter sent home about MRSA infections and had educated students about the infection through an assembly.
“The letter that went out to the parents on Oct. 22 was an education piece to the parents about their efforts to address the matter of MRSA from a prevention and a proactive standpoint. This was prior to having been informed of any existing cases,” said Bennett.
She added that the assembly taught students what to look for, how to keep safe, the warning signs, wound care and other information about MRSA.
Bennett said after the confirmed case came forward late last week, school officials instantly notified parents via a phone call or a text message, depending on how the parent indicated he or she preferred to be reached.
“[The notification] said there was a confirmed case, that the student received the proper care, she had been cleared by her doctors that [officials] are continuing with their ongoing … efforts,” said Bennett, who added more information is on the RBC Web site.
She said before the MRSA case was reported, which is not related to the school’s sports or athletic programs, RBC had increased sanitizing procedures, equipping each classroom and restroom with hand sanitizers.
“Based on everything they’ve been seeing in the news [they’re] doing everything they can in order to safeguard their community,” said Bennett.
A spokeswoman for Oak Hill Academy declined to comment Monday.
Although MRSA is not a new phenomenon, Sawyer said, the infection is garnering more attention in the media because of the recent deaths of two students, one in Virginia and the other in New York City, and a study released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
“CDC said MRSA outside the hospital is increasing and we need to be aware of it,” said Sawyer.
MCRHC health officer Sidney B. Johnson concurred with Sawyer, saying the infection has been around since the 1970s and 85 percent of the cases reported are still related to the health system.
“[MRSA] started in the hospitals in the 1970s and it’s been in the community, jails, hospitals, colleges, camps, locker rooms,” said Johnson.
He added, “Unfortunately it is true that a small percentage [of people] do not respond to treatment and that people can die from either that or complications from it.”
Johnson stressed that those fatal cases are only a small percentage of the total MRSA cases and that the infections are treatable.
Johnson also noted that the state has asked health departments to start reporting MRSA cases via a memo sent to health departments around the state.
“Two or more nonhousehold cases are reportable to the state health department,” said Johnson, reading from the Oct. 19 memo.
“It also said that if you become aware of an individual MRSA case … we ask that you call as a courtesy … all this is a courtesy because this isn’t a reportable disease yet,” he said.
Johnson continued, “[MRSA is] in the community … so it’s not a shock that you would find a case here or there.”
Sawyer also said that MRSA is not a reportable disease to the Health Department as of yet so the NJDSS does not track individual cases.
“We’ve had three outbreaks in 2007 [in New Jersey] and that is actually below the average outbreaks we usually find,” said Sawyer. He defined “outbreaks” to be two or more reported cases in one area and would not release where the outbreaks were saying that the information is “immaterial.”
According to the CDC Web site, “The majority of MRSA infections occur among patients in hospitals or other healthcare settings; however, it is becoming more common in the community setting. Data from a prospective study in 2003, suggests that 12 percent of clinical MRSA infections are community-associated, but this varies by geographic region and population.”
The CDC Web site, www.cdc.gov, also lists tips for how to prevent this type of staph infection, which is most frequently spread by direct skin-to-skin contact. Prevention tips include practicing good hygiene, washing your hands with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, covering cuts and scrapes with a bandage and keeping them clean, avoiding contact with other people’s wounds or bandages and not sharing personal items such as towels and razors.
Although MRSA infections are resistant to penicillin, they are treatable with antibiotics.
“People are using antibiotics inappropriately and are becoming resistant to antibiotics. [It] builds up the bodies’ resistance to antibiotics and that is where the MRSA infections became an issue,” said Sawyer, who added that MRSA is not currently a public health emergency.
Other schools, like Red Bank Regional High School (RBR), that do not have any reported cases of MRSA infections, are also alerting parents and students about what to look for and how to prevent infection.
RBR currently lists preventative health care tips on the school Web site and includes the preventative measures the school has taken as well, such as powerwashing the locker rooms and restroom facilities regularly and the installation of hand sanitizers throughout the school.
According to the Web site, “We must all take a proactive approach with the prevention of infection in the schools.”