Richmond superintendent urges calm

A school superintendent in eastern Georgia says staff members and medical personnel are doing everything they can to prevent students, teachers and employees from getting staph infection. But he's urging the public not to panic.

Richmond County's superintendent, Dana Bedden, said in a news conference today that officials are disinfecting schools. They're also repeatedly teaching children about personal hygiene.

Bedden told reporters in Augusta that many parents have called his office, worried their children might get a deadly disease. But he stressed that the staph, called MRSA, is very treatable.

"We've got some overreaction here," said Bedden. "People are treating people like they've got the plague. No child, no person, needs to be treated in that manner. It is treatable. It is manageable if people follow the instructions that are given by the health officials."

Bedden announced that an elementary school student is the fourth person in the Richmond County school system to have MRSA.

Officials in nearby Columbia County say 12 students there have had the infection.

Facilities affected by MRSA in Richmond County

Richmond County school officials have confirmed Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcous Aureus in these facilities:

Blythe Elementary School (1 case)
Glenn Hills Middle School (1)
Richmond County Board of Education administration building (1)

Three in Richmond County diagnosed with staph

Three people in the Richmond County school system have been diagnosed with staph infection, according to school officials in Augusta. Dana Bedden, the school superintendent, says in a letter to parents today that the Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcous Aureus (MRSA) was confirmed in an individual at Glenn Hills Middle School, another at Blythe Elementary School, and a third at the Richmond County Board of Education administration building. The letter did not specify if the individuals were students, teachers or school system staff members. The letter also said that "all students and staff who have confirmed cases of staph infection are expected to remain home until they are able to provide a physician's notice indicating they may return to school and/or work." Custodial staff, meanwhile, are cleaning areas where the infected people might have been. Staph infections can cause serious illness and even death among people with compromised immune systems or who don't get treatment. Serious staph infections are often found in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Community-based MRSA, the infection reported in Richmond schools, often presents as a simple skin infection. This type of infection is resistant to common antibiotics such as penicillin, but is treatable with other medications. Health officials say community based MRSA is on the rise. Officials in the Columbia County school system say 12 students in nine schools there have been diagnosed with MRSA during the last two weeks. For more information, go to www.rcboe.org or www.cdc.gov.

Staph infection reported in Augusta

Another student has been diagnosed with staph infection, this time in east Georgia. The student attends Augusta State University. School officials say the staph is a skin infection on his leg, and that it's not serious. Nationally, health experts say infections are becoming more difficult to treat because they're resistant to penicillin. The disease is called MRSA. "MRSA itself in a wound is not something that should panic the whole community," says Dr. Charlotte Price, chair of Augusta State's nursing department. "We do watch it, though. The thing about MRSA is it is in our community now. At some point it was just primarily patients in the hospitals." MRSA can be treated with antibiotics other than penicillin. A spokeswoman for Augusta State said employees there had cleaned and disinfected the student's classrooms since his diagnosis. For more information about staph infection, how to treat it, and how to protect yourself from it, go to www.cdc.gov.

Five more staph infections reported

Five more Atlanta area students have been diagnosed with antibiotic-resistant staph infections. The latest cases involve two students at North Cobb High School in Kennesaw, two students at Osborne High School in Marietta and one student at Southside High School in Atlanta. The schools say they are disinfencting the students’ classrooms and common areas. Staph infections have spread through schools nationwide in recent weeks.

School scrubbed after staph infections

Two students at a middle Georgia high school have been diagnosed with staph infections that are resistant to antibiotics. A ninth-grader and a 10th-grader at Johnson County High School in Wrightsville were diagnosed in the past month. Now common areas have been scrubbed with bleach. Health and education officials have said that staph infections have spread through schools nationwide in recent weeks.