It is resistant to drugs commonly given to fight infection, and it could be lurking in a locker room at your child’s school. In some – albeit rare – cases, students have died.
MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, has been a problem in hospitals and health care settings for years.
More recently it’s gained media attention due to a 2007 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report and the death of a 17-year-old athlete in Moneta, Va. Cases have been reported across Virginia and Tennessee, and nationwide.
MRSA recently hit Washington County (Va.) Schools, but administrators have refused to disclose at which school it originated.
We can understand not wanting to cause panic or stigmatize a school, but parents and others deserve to know which school is affected. Otherwise, all seem suspect.
Scrub downs are in order to prevent spreading the infection.
Students and parents need to know to take precautions – to watch any cuts, to clean athletic gear, to watch for signs of infection.
We are not advocating panic or overreacting. Most people will not get MRSA or have any medical problem. But parents should know where the infection occurred.
And they should be told what the school system is doing to get rid of it, and to prevent it in the future.
We call upon the school district to name the affected school so that parents with children there can make informed decisions – and parents at the other schools can stop worrying.
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