October 29, 2007
On October 14th, a boy infected with the Staph bacteria died, and the parents of other children enrolled at the Brooklyn public school this boy attended weren’t notified until weeks later.
At this point, NYC public school officials have done a thorough “wash-down” of the school, but the health commissioner for the city is cited as saying,
“Just please remember that cleaning of the environment is very unlikely to make any difference in the spread of infection. It’s something that’s done so people feel better, but this isn’t what’s going to reduce the spread of bacteria.”
While it is believed that it is the staph infection that led to the boy’s demise, it won’t be known for sure until after the autopsy is complete.
What do you think about this?
How would you feel if you were informed of the death of your child’s schoolmate due to a “virulent, drug-resistent strain of a bacteria” not days, but weeks after the fact?
Here are some links to more information:
- Health Officials Try to Calm Parents About Staph
- Child Was Treated at Hospital Days Before Staph Death
- Source of fatal staph infection believed to have killed New York boy under investigation
- Staph Outbreak Prompts Legislation
Let me know how you feel about this issue! If you’ve written about this on your blog, comment on this post and I will link to your entry below:
- Your post here!
Kristina, That is really awful, I know that when I use to work as an A.D. at two nursing homes, we had mrsa residents and had to wear isolation gear to go into their rooms, but the homes never explained to us what mrsa was or gave us any information, and at the time I had young children at home!