MRSA infection prompts parental notification

Bill Robinson
Register News Writer

Model Laboratory School sent a letter home Tuesday with each of its 685 students informing parents the school learned Monday afternoon about a seventh-grader who had been diagnosed with an antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus infection.

Such infections often are referred to by the acronym MRSA, for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

After learning about the case, the school immediately followed its MRSA incident protocol by notifying the Madison County Health Department and by sanitizing areas of the school that the student typically frequents, said Marc Whitt, spokesman for Eastern Kentucky University, which operates the school.

Seventh-grade students were sent home with a letter Monday, “because we wanted to first notify families of those who had children who might have come into contact with the student,” according to a letter from James Dantic, the school’s director.

After consulting with the Madison County Health Department, Dantic said he believed others students were not at increased risk of MRSA infection.

Several Model parents became alarmed Tuesday morning after learning from Lexington media reports that a MRSA case had been confirmed at their children’s school.

Dantic gave a statement to a Lexington newspaper Monday night, but Madison County media were not informed.

The father of one Model student who called the Richmond Register on Tuesday said he took his child home early Tuesday after school officials failed to reassure him.

“They wouldn’t tell me the grade of the student,” he said.

Dantic’s letter, released later in the day, identified the student as a seventh-grader.

One cause for parents’ alarm was the March 10 death of 17-year old Jessamine County student from a MRSA infection.

“MRSA is not a readily transmittable disease,” said Christie Green, Madison County Health Department spokesperson. “It requires skin-to-skin contact with an open wound or skin-to-surface contact with surfaces contaminated by an open wound.”

If a staph-infected wound is kept properly covered with clean, dry bandages, there is very minimal risk to the people around them in schools or workplaces, she said. Practicing good hygiene, such as regularly washing hands and not sharing personal items such as towels and razors is the best way to avoid MRSA infection.

If a MRSA-infected wound cannot be kept covered, the federal Centers for Disease Control recommends the infected person should avoid public spaces and should not participate in sports activities.

Under state and federal laws, MRSA is not a reportable disease.

“While workplaces or schools may choose to alert those who may come in close contact with an individual who has a MRSA infection,” Green said, “a single individual with a staph infection is not cause to notify the general public.”

That is why the local health department supports decisions made by schools and employers about informing parents and employees about MRSA cases, she said.

Most staph skin infections, including MRSA, appear as a bump or infected area on the skin that may be red, swollen, painful, warm to the touch, full of pus or other drainage and accompanied by a fever, Green said.

Staph bacteria are a fairly common, according to Dr. Kraig Humbaugh, state epidemiologist.

“One in three people will have staph on their skin at any given time,” he said. “It’s important, however, to distinguished between colonization and infection. Having staph germs on you skin is not the same as an infection.”

Although MRSA infections may not respond to the penicillin family of antibiotics, they are readily treatable with other antibiotics, Humbaugh said.

Only about 5 percent of so-called invasive MRSA infections are highly resistant, he said.

“The best way for those of us in public health to prevent MRSA infections is to teach preventive behaviors, as you local health department spokesperson told you.”

Humbaugh was to speak at a Jessamine County public meeting Tuesday evening to discuss the MRSA issue.

The Model Parents Organization has scheduled a similar meeting for April 20, Dantic said.

“I was invited to the April 20 meeting in Richmond,” Humbaugh said, “and normally I would be there, but I have a conflict that evening,” he said.

Another state health official, along with someone from the county health department, will participate in the meeting.

Dantic said concerned Model parents should contact their family physician, call the Madison County Health Department at 626-4280 or to call him at 622-3766.

He also suggested visiting the Centers for Disease Control’s Web site: cdc.gov.

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 624-6622.