Is anyone concerned about our children contracting the MRSA Staph infection? It is not an air borne virus or germ. It lays and waits on surfaces. It runs rampede in locker and gym rooms. Just curious what other parents are doing and thinking.

Tina

I am concerned about the spread of MRSA in the schools it is very serious. But I would also like to add that I am a RN and the way that the stories about MRSA are talked about makes it seem as if it is a new infectious disease and it is not. One news cast that I saw was calling it the "new superbug" this caught my attention being in the health profession. When I found out that the story was about MRSA I took a deep breathe. Don't get me wrong it is very serious but I don't want people to cause a panic either. We see a lot of patients with MRSA and have ways of protecting our selves from the infection. I think it is serious and we are seeing it a lot more because their is not a lot of information on this issue in the community. The school systems should take the time to teach parents, teachers and students about reducing the risk for this infectious disease. I don't have children right now but I would feel better knowing that the schools are doing their best to educate and reduce this issue in our schools. I believe that the school nurses should get together and get a presentation together for the school boards and then for everyone else. It is not hard to find information just look on the internet. Please concerned parents push the issue of education and make sure that people find out more about MRSA because if the community is more aware of this, then we as health professional won't see it as much as we do.

I'm concerned about it not only in school, but sports. My kids play football. They are issued their equipment at the beginning of season but sometimes if someone forgets something the coaches let them borrow it from another player without question. I hope they are thinking about it now.

MRSA should be a big concern everywhere. Most people are not going to come down with the fatal kind, but even the MRSA infection in a wound as opposed to the bloodstream, is not fun. I know I recently had what I thought was a spider bite, that within a few hours went from the size of a quarter to the size of a baseball. It never drained, I had no previous wound and that was all I could think it was. Ended up it was MRSA. Had to take antibiotics (which made me nauseated) and use Bactoban ointment in my nose, because apparently it was growing there too. Scary. If I had waited to seek medical attention, it could have invaded the bloodstream. As a medical professional, I am meticulous about handwashing, etc and have no idea how I could have contracted it. It could be on the buggies at Wal-Mart for all I know. Yvonne, I would suggest talking to the coaches about sharing equipment-not only for the MRSA, but you have ringworm and headlice to worry about too. If this is school football as opposed to park ball, I would talk to the school nurse to. Perhaps they could do some education of the staff/students. Do parents have the option to purchase their own equipment? I know when my girls played softball, I didn't let them share helmets. I usually had an extra (my husband coached and I was Team Mom), so we would loan that one and then disinfect it every time.

There is a posting on http://www.foxnews.com today about this very subject. Shaking hands with people is certainly a source of spreading germs. Lets learn to wave instead.

MRSA infection is caused by Staphylococcus aureus bacteria — often called "staph." MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It's a strain of staph that's resistant to the broad-spectrum antibiotics commonly used to treat it. MRSA can be fatal.
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james
Foreclosed Homes

never heard of it in my life, and sounds like something that some fool yankee would bring up.... for petes sake, i run around with no shirt and no shoes all summer, do u really think i'm worried about getting some disease or watever u yanks call it???

MRSA is not a new bug. It's been around for a long time. At first, we used to see it in Post-op patient's predominately...now, it's not uncommon to see it in Nursing Home Resident's, as well as in Meth User's, who come into the ER with what they will say are "spider bites" which are infact, boils and bleed-outs (all that junk they use to make it wants to come out of the body) that will culture out MRSA.

When I first heard about it reaching the community, showing up in locker rooms of our kids who play sports in school... my heart jumped up and shook hands with my tonsils...you see...I HATE this bug with a passion...It killed my Dad ten years ago.

Wait a minute....let me be honest here... MRSA did not kill my Dad. He contracted it after open heart surgery, when the Coumadin he was taking, caused nose-bleeds, which he required a cautery procedure for. They (his medical team) are pretty sure it was introduced into his system thru this procedure. His immune system was already compromised because of the surgery. He fought the effects of MRSA for two months. and then lost his battle with it, from Heart Failure.
We KNOW that those,whose immune system is weakened for whatever reason (such as many Nursing Home Residents) are more susceptible to it. Had he not been weakened from the surgery, he might have survived.
My first thought is always (My Dad died from MRSA) but the truth is...while MRSA played a part in his death, it wasn't the direct cause.
I was angry for a very long time, that the medical community introduced a bug to my Dad that brought about his death...I even stopped Nursing (Nurse for over 30 yrs) for awhile because of it....but the truth is...he could have gotten it off a buggy at Walmart.
What I have learned from it, is (not just the importance of handwashing) the absolute necessity of good handwashing technique, and good house-keeping in general...wiping off surfaces such as the hand rails you see along the corridors in Nursing Homes and hospitals...and in some schools...surfaces, such as faucets and toilets and door handles in locker rooms, ect.
We teach our kids to wash their hands after they go to the bathroom, before they eat and after, ect...but it pretty much stops there...We have to do more !
Educate our kids, not only to wash their hands, but HOW to as well... THROUGHLY...not just a quick run thru of soap and water, then dry and fly...
Put some handwashing gel and some of those wipes in your kids backpacks, and insist that they use them...and follow these tactics your own self.
Most of us will never see the bad side of MRSA... even if you do come in contact with it...because we have immune systems that can handle it, but we can minimize the spread of this bug, through these methods...

My grandaughter contracted it her mother though it was a bite ,looked supsious to me we carried her to the doctor and it was mrsa we have been on the hand wash campain since she was born five years ago it has been drilled into to her but she still got it .Keeping the antibacterial soap and peroxide in use alcohol and sanitary wipes this stuff can survive on anything for days and is scary as it can be

We're obsessive compulsive hand-washers so it doesn't affect us.