Maryland does not require the anitibiotic-resistant strain of staph infection to be reported on a case-by-case basis, because no specific way has been found to handle or prevent each case, one official said.
“For some conditions, particularly those that are common and where there?s no specific public health action resulting from every single case, states employ other surveillance techniques,” Dr. David Blythe, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene epidemiologist, wrote in an e-mail.
For example, health officials take action with every reported case of meningococcal meningitis, an infection that causes inflammation of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.
“We attempt to identify the close contacts of every single case so that they can be offered preventive antibiotics,” wrote Blythe, who studies diseases and develops and recommends public health policy.
Instead of reporting every MRSA case, Maryland residents are urged to wash their hands carefully and clean with soap and water after activities that lead to skin-to-skin contact or skin abrasions.
Although MRSA isn?t individually tracked, data from the severe form of MRSA, called invasive MRSA, could be collected and used to identify how the community was doing in preventing the MRSA infections, according to Blythe.
Outbreaks of MRSA, though, are reportable, he wrote.
An outbreak investigation would begin when three confirmed cases surface in one school within three weeks, and all are shown to be related, according to the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Three reported outbreaks of MRSA in Maryland schools have occurred this year, said Karen Black, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
She could not provide details of the cases or where they occurred because of confidentiality rules. Although cases of MRSA are not reportable, school officials in the region have been releasing the data for concerned parents.
None of the school systems has said the cases amounting to an outbreak yet.
School officials said the cases have been isolated incidents and evidence does not suggest they are related.
BY THE NUMBERS
Outbreaks of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus are occasionally reported to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
These cases were reported in all settings, including prisons and hospitals, statewide. The numbers in parentheses refer to outbreaks in schools.
» 2007: 3 (3)
» 2006: 6 (2)
» 2005: 8 (1)
» 2004: 8 (2)
» 2003: 4
» 2002: 3
» 2001: 2
» 2000: 3
Source: Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Confirmed cases of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus in the region?s schools as of Nov. 6:
» Anne Arundel: 7
» Baltimore City: 0
» Baltimore County: 2
» Carroll: 13
» Howard: 9
Harford had one case in a nonschool setting.
Source: County school officials
jkowalkowski@baltimoreexaminer.
