Carroll County Public Schools has been hit the hardest in the Baltimore region by methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, with 13 confirmed cases since the beginning of the school year, school officials said Friday.
“It hasn?t been an outbreak but has been sporadic across the county from elementary to high schools,” said Margaret Hoffmaster, the school system?s supervisor of health services.
Of the 13 cases of MRSA, a strain resistant to some antibiotics, Hoffmaster said she was just notified of two more cases on Thursday.
On Friday, the county sent an e-mail to school parents notifying them of the situation and urging students and staff to use good hygiene and cover open wounds.
Hoffmaster did not have immediate data on which schools had cases, but said MRSA-resistant cleaning solutions are being administered throughout all schools.
“The whole thing about these ?superbugs? is scary to the general population,” said Charles Burks, the technical director for Delta Foremost Chemical Corp., a Memphis, Tenn.-based company that manufactures MRSA-resistant chemicals. “But if we can get to them before they get into the body, it?s a piece of cake to get rid of them.”
Besides Carroll, Anne Arundel public schools has had one confirmed case of MRSA, and Howard County has had two confirmed cases.
“There are 15 self-reported cases of MRSA that we are following up on,” said Elin Jones, spokesperson of the Anne Arundel County Department of Health. These self-reported cases are only possible cases and could only be a general staph infection or other skin infection, she said.
She added that the total number of self-reported general skin infections has grown to 69. Usually, the office hears of about three or four a day.
The affected schools still say there are no plans to shut down, insisting that cleaning will be sufficient to control the spread.
“We can?t answer what it would take to close the schools because it?s a case-by-case basis,” said Anne Arundel spokesperson Maneka Wade.
“We assess each situation individually. It?s just about keeping abreast on the situation.”
Anne Arundel spokesman Bob Mosier said any decision to close would likely be a jointdecision between the school system and county health department. It?s not known how many cases of MRSA it would take to close the school, he said.
The school?s hospital-grade cleaning agent has been used in all high school locker rooms and other school areas where equipment is frequently shared, said Superintendent Kevin Maxwell.
Although they have no confirmed MRSA cases, officials at Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Harford County public schools say they are informing staff and students about preventative measures.
