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Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Campus Germs: How Clean Is Your School?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Department of Education officials are urging public schools to develop procedures to handle, contain and prevent outbreaks of the drug-resistant germ that infected some school kids in Georgia recently.
Department spokesman Matt Cardoza said the new guidance on staph infections issued on Friday was sent as a “precaution” — not as an indication that the deadly bacteria are running amuck in schools.
Last week, I discovered that four students in north Fulton County had contracted Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in the past month — the same bacteria blamed for the death of a Virginia student last week.
Some Fulton parents were so alarmed by the news, a couple principals sent letters home Monday to allay fears. But it’s unclear whether any of the students — who all attend different schools —caught the bug on campus.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most illnesses from this so-called “super bug” start in the hospital or other health care facility, such as a nursing home. Still, there has been a noticeable increase in the numbers of patients catching the bacteria in other places.
Now, we all know that school kids routinely pick up colds, flu and other illnesses from their classmates. The question: Are schools doing enough to help them avoid unnecessary sickness?
In other words: How clean is your school?
UPDATE: In addition to the four cases in Fulton, DeKalb County also has had at least one case of a student contracting a staph infection. That case, which was reported to school officials about three weeks ago, involved a freshman football player at Columbia High School. After the infection was reported, the school’s locker rooms were cleaned — although, a DeKalb schools spokesman said it’s not clear whether that was the source of the bacteria.
