MRSA Prevention Tips Offered

More than 30 Oil City Area School District residents, professional staff and administrators turned out Tuesday night for a community awareness meeting about MRSA, a drug-resistant staph infection that has been discovered in several area school districts.

Confirmed cases of the community-acquired version of methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus infections, which is generally a skin infection, have been found at Clarion University and the Oil City, Franklin and Titusville school districts.

The information session in the high school auditorium was designed to provide preventive and educational materials to parents, students and the general public.

"We don't want people to be alarmed, but there is nothing wrong with a little concern," Oil City Superintendent Joe Carrico said.

Dr. David Andres and the school district's head nurse, Sharon Shreffler, offered tips for identifying problems and avoiding infection by preventative measures.

Andres said the bacteria have been around since the 1960s. He said between 2 and 2.5 percent of the population of the U.S. has the bacteria at any one time.

"Everybody needs to calm down. ... I think we are all getting a little too hyped up about it. It's been here a long time and most physicians have dealt with it," Andres said.

Staph bacteria, along with strep and yeast bacteria, are normally present on the skin and in the nose of many healthy people without causing any health problems. "It's the biggest battle that nobody can see. We are all Petri dishes," Andres said.

Although the bacteria are present, it is not until they enter the body through cuts or abrasions on the skin that infection begins, Andres said. All forms of staph, including MRSA, are spread by skin-to-skin contact, inadequate personal hygiene and poor disinfection. MRSA infection occurs most often among people with weakened immune systems in hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities.

But MRSA infections can also occur among healthy individuals and are most commonly seen among sports teams, in schools, military facilities and other places where there is frequent skin-to-skin contact and body fluids such as sweat. Andres said MRSA has become resistant to several commonly-used antibiotics, but prescription drugs that combat the bacteria are still plentiful and the best line of defense is cleanliness.

"Kids need to know when you are done with a sport, the sooner you shower, the better," he said.

Shreffler said intensive education efforts are under way for all ages to cover all abrasions and keep clean. "We tell all the kids to remember what they learned in kindergarten - keep your hands to yourself," Shreffler said.

"As long as your skin is intact, it is unlikely that you will get an infection. I deal with it all the time," Andres said. Teachers have been instructed on what to look for in classes and all students with rashes and skin lesions are sent to the nurse's office as a precaution. Those students who appear infected in sent home with a note to their family doctor and may return when they have been cleared by a physician.

Shreffler said the community-associated MRSA usually appears as a pimple, boil or abscess that is red, swollen, or painful, and it may have pus or other drainage. Patients may think early signs of infection look like a spider bite or ingrown hair.

"Symptoms of regular staph and MRSA both present the same. ... Community-associated MRSA is a different mutation that what is in hospitals and nursing homes," Shreffler said.

Although neither of the two confirmed cases in the Oil City district were athletes, athletic director Rick Fletcher said precautions were in place for the safety of all the sports teams.

"Our front line of defense is our athletic trainer. ... Any lesion, cut, abrasion or rash and the student athlete is sent to the trainer for evaluation," Fletcher said.

Individual water bottles and towels have been ordered for the basketball team, and the locker rooms, cafeteria, computer rooms, library, office and nurse's area have all been equipped with waterless hand sanitizer wall units. All classrooms have been supplied with bottles of the sanitizer as well.

Foggers are being utilized in high contamination spots such as locker rooms and wrestling areas.

"We did (foggers) for wrestling all last year and did not have one case of ringworm and this same product is good for MRSA. The product is also used in individual aerosol can for desks," said district maintenance supervisor Mel Britton. Automatic flushers are being installed in many of the district's restroom areas as an additional safety measure. The district's bus service has been disinfecting all buses on a regular basis

"We have been working hard at this to maximize our safety with this concern. Always feel free to call us if you have questions," Carrico said. The district has provided an information link on its Web site, www.ocasd.org for more information.

Titusville Area School District will hold an informational session at 5:30 p.m. today in the high school auditorium on the same topic.