Virginia schools close for staph cleaning
The Washington Post reports this morning that a number of Virginia’s schools had to be closed for a thorough cleaning after a student died from staph infection recently;
Rappahannock Superintendent Bob Chappell said school employees also followed a local hospital’s advice to mop hallways and classrooms with a bleach solution. The cost of the cleanup: more than $10,000.
“It’s real easy . . . to point fingers all over the place,” said Larry Sells, a parent at Anne Arundel’s Severna Park High School, where several cases are suspected. “But the only finger-pointing that does any good is at the problem and how to get it fixed.”
Getting ahead of MRSA is a daunting challenge. Hospitals and nursing homes have been dealing for decades with the pathogen, which is especially risky for patients with weakened immune systems or those recovering from surgery or in intensive care.
A report this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that serious incidences of this strain are far more frequent than previously thought. Every year in the United States, the researchers said, MRSA causes more than 94,000 acute infections and nearly 19,000 deaths.
19,000 deaths. From infections. Almost sounds like a foreign country, doesn’t it? But it’s the US – the only civilized nation in the world (I’m completely serious when I write that – have you ever been to Europe? It’s a cesspool.)
The Washington Examiner reports;
As of Sept. 19, three MRSA outbreaks had been reported this year at other locations including a school, Virginia Department of Health spokesman Robert Parker said. Six outbreaks were reported in 2005 and five in 2004.
Well, here’s a hint where this stuff is coming from, in the Washington Times, by Audrey Hudson and Sara Carter;
A Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis crossed the U.S. border 76 times and took multiple domestic flights in the past year, according to Customs and Border Protection interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Times.
The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency was warned by health officials on April 16 that the frequent traveler was infected, but it took Homeland Security officials more than six weeks to issue a May 31 alert to warn its own border inspectors, according to Homeland Security sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Homeland Security took a further week to tell its own Transportation Security Agency.
Comforting isn’t it?
