'Superbug' Infection at Mt. Vernon Schools
Pastor Dale Morgan
'Superbug' Infection at Mt. Vernon Schools*
Sunday October 28, 2007 10:16 AM
MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. (AP) - Public schools in Mount Vernon are being
disinfected after a worker and a student showed signs of an
antibiotic-resistant staph infection, authorities said.
Schools Superintendent W. L. Tony Sawyer said a high school employee and
a third-grade student are being tested for MRSA, or
methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The bacterial strain can be
treated with other antibiotics, but without treatment it can be deadly.
Sawyer said the two will stay home from the schools - Edward Williams
Elementary and Nelson Mandela Community High - until the test results
are known.
Sawyer said that if either tests positive, the school system will
redouble its efforts to disinfect. But medical authorities have said the
schools will not need to close, he said.
The bacteria was blamed for the death of a 17-year-old Virginia high
school senior and a 12-year-old New York City middle school student this
month.
At least seven students on New York's Long Island were recently
diagnosed with MRSA, as were 10 members of an athletic team at Iona
College in New Rochelle, N.Y. However, a government report has estimated
it may sicken more than 90,000 Americans each year.