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MRSA

Dr. Amundsen joins MRSA task force for MPS

Since the beginning of school, four students at Mustang Public Schools have been diagnosed with MRSA. The infection has garnered significant media attention in recent weeks after schools in the northeast saw an outbreak within their athletic programs.

Mustang Public School’s MRSA task force has been working since the initial stories broke to establish policies for dealing with skin infections of all type in the general population as well as with athletes. Dr. Gerald Amundsen, a Mustang physician, met with the committee Thursday. He said MRSA is not uncommon and has treated several cases of the skin infection over the past three to four years.

Amundsen said CA-MRSA is drug resistant to penicillin, an antibiotic typically used to treat staph infections. CA-MRSA does respond very well to other common antibiotics. Amundsen said that when CA-MRSA infections are treated by a physician, they normally clear up with no complications.

Amundsen said 30 percent of the population is colonized with regular staph bacteria. One to three percent of the population is carrying Community Associated MRSA.
Amundsen said much of the current concern could be confusion between Hospital Associated MRSA and Community Associated MRSA. HA-MRSA is the “super bug” that is highly drug resistant and difficult to treat. Mustang Public Schools and other districts across the nation are facing CA-MRSA, which responds well to antibiotics.

“The Community-Associated MRSA is far less virulent and aggressive than what’s in hospitals,” he said. “The one we’re dealing with responds well to some basic antibiotics. It’s not the ‘superbug.’”

Amundsen encouraged parents to take note of sores on their children’s skin. Children should also be educated to tell their parents, a teacher or the school nurse when they notice a sore that doesn’t go away. Proper hygiene and hand washing is the most effective method of prevention. For more information, visit the Web site for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web: http://www.cdc.gov/Features/MRSAinSchools/.

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