South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers

South Florida was on alert on Tuesday as concern over the spread of the superbug increased.

Four cases of the MRSA superbug have been reported in Miami-Dade County, one case in Broward County and none reported in Monroe County.

All four cases have connections to schools, and that has some parents in a panic.

Many parents criticized the school boards saying they should have let them know about the infections. They said they should have found out about it from school officials and not heard about it on the news.

The school board and health department answered on Tuesday by saying the news coverage was an overreaction by the media. They put out their own letter explaining what is going on. The letter does not specify the number of cases in the area, but it does let parents know what they should do to keep their children safe.

“There has been a lot made of this in the media in the last few days,” said John Schuster of Miami-Dade Public Schools. “We would like to allay any concerns that (parents) may have.”

Many parents were so concerned that they pulled their children out of school after school officials refused to answer questions about MRSA cases within the Miami-Dade County school system.

The school board confirmed one case involving a staff member at Sunset Elementary School, a suspected case of a student at Homestead Senior High School and two suspected cases involving Miami-Dade County school bus drivers.

“The level of concern is actually very low,” said Dr. Vincent Conte of the Miami-Dade Health Department. “It’s a difficult bug to catch in normal, healthy people who have normal immune systems.”

The risk factors for MRSA, known as the 5 Cs, include:

Crowding

Contact (frequent skin-to-skin)

Compromised skin, like cuts or abrasions

Contaminated items or surfaces

Cleanliness, or rather lack thereof “As long as the child takes a good bath or a good shower at the end of the day, washes their clothes, takes good personal hygiene, washes their hands once or twice in the course of the day, there should be no danger of contracting the disease,” Conte said. County officials said there is no reason to take children out of school. “We did some cleaning at Sunset,” Schuster said. “We also did some cleaning at Homestead — also, with the buses that were in question with the bus drivers.” Officials said meanwhile, parents should know what symptoms to look for. “Pimples, boils, redness and tenderness of the skin,” Conte said. So far, county officials said there have been no new cases and no real reason for parents to fear sending their children to school. “It’s actually difficult to acquire the disease,” Conte said. “Once you acquire the disease, it’s usually a disease that’s easily controllable and easily treatable.” School officials and the health department said they cannot release specific details on who has been infected with the superbug.

S. Fla. Students, Parents Concerned About MRSA Infection

Concerned parents at Sunset Elementary School in Coral Gables took their children out of school on Tuesday.

Parents said they will keep their children out of school until they can be confident every classroom and facility has been disinfected. They said they are angry with school officials for not being informative and proactive about the confirmed MRSA case at the school.

“This is very serious,” fifth grader Kevin Reynolds said.

The 10-year-old said he was feeling uneasy after a staff member at the school had a confirmed case of the staph bacterial infection that is anti-biotic-resistant.

“We all try to not touch each other,” Reynolds said. “We did not go to the cafeteria. I was thinking in my head, ‘If we go to the cafeteria, then there is a very good chance that we might get infected.’”

As a precaution, students ate lunch in their classrooms, but there were no announcements made about the disease. Some teachers took it upon themselves to keep the children safe.

“At the beginning of the day, we before we started class, everybody got some wipes and cleaned their desks,” Reynolds said.

Parents said they were angry and frustrated that the school had not notified them of the case at the school sooner.

On Monday, school officials and the Department of Health sent letters home with students. Still, some parents were upset with how school officials handled the situation.

“My concern is that the school administration is not coming forward and being more straightforward,” said a parent who wished to be referred to as ‘Jorge.’

School officials said they have disinfected certain areas of the campus, but one mother said that’s not enough.

“My daughter did not come to school today,” Rosa Hernandes said. “This is a huge issue. These are our kids, and they need to clean the school thoroughly.”

At a press conference, JohnSchuster of Miami-Dade Public Schools said he could not name who had contracted the disease. However, he said it was a staff member who works in daily contact with children.

Miami-Dade Public Schools has not confirmed if the hospitalized employee is a teacher, but students and parents alike seemed to know who she was.

“It’s a third grade teacher,” Hernandes said. “She’s an awesome teacher. She’s great. My heart goes out to her.”

The Florida Department of Health urged all students to keep good hygiene, to keep cuts and scrapes covered with a bandage and to not share personal items. But they said there is no need to pull students out of school because of the superbug.

S. Fla. Infection Count:

Broward County – one suspected case, 3rd grader at Thurgood Elementary School

Miami-Dade County – four confirmed cases, one at Sunset Elementary school and three county bus drivers

Monroe County – no known cases

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 5:15 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.