Friday, October 26, 2007

Blair County High School Students Diagnosed With MRSA

Blair County High School Students Diagnosed With MRSA

10/26/2007 8:42 am

Four students from two Blair County are now the latest to have apparently contracted cases of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. It’s a bacterial skin infection commonly known as MRSA, and it can be deadly.

School officials say a student-athlete from Central High School in Martinsburg has been infected, as have three other students who attend classes in the Tyrone-Area School District. Spring Cove School District Superintendent Rodney Green reports that their student’s MRSA case was confirmed on Monday, and that prompted district officials to take quick action to keep the incident isolated.

The district has sent letters home to student’s parents explaining the situation. Green says the infected student realized there was a problem with a skin infection he acquired last week and he sought immediate medical treatment. The student had already been on antibiotics before the official MRSA confirmation was made.

Local health officials are calling the student’s cases an “isolated incident.”

Green says his district’s student has a community-acquired form of the bacteria, which is common among student athletes and can be treated with antibiotics. WRTA News has so far been unable to confirm the exact details surrounding the three students who became infected in Tyrone.

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