Encinitas school reports staph infection
By: STACY BRANDT - Staff Writer
Officials aren't clear what type of bug kindergartener had | ∞
ENCINITAS -- Maintenance workers disinfected a kindergarten classroom at El Camino Creek Elementary School Tuesday evening, after a parent informed school workers that her child had been diagnosed with a staph infection, the school's principal said Wednesday.
The infected child wasn't in class this week, Principal Carrie Brown said. Still, Brown said, she decided to have the district employees clean the room as a precaution.
"With staph, we always like to take the extra safeguard of having district workers come out," she said.
The symptoms of staph infection can be a variety of skin problems, including sores that look and feel like spider bites, boils or fluid-filled blisters. It's often transmitted through skin-to-skin contact with infected individuals and can usually be treated with antibiotics.
School officials notified parents of students in the infected child's class that there is a possibility that their children may have been exposed to staph. The district notification letters also detailed what to look for to diagnose the infection, and informed parents that infected students shouldn't return to school until the infection is completely treated, Brown said.
No other parents at the school have reported any symptoms, she said.
Brown said it was unclear what type of staph infection the child had, though it was probably a mild bug, considering that the mother said she expects her child to return to school soon.
While staph infections are rare at schools, they do happen and can be deadly at times.
A 13-year-old Encinitas boy died last month from an antibiotic-resistant form of staph. San Dieguito Union High School officials said at the time that they didn't know how or where the seventh-grader at Diegueno Middle School contracted the infection.
About a week later, a wrestling coach at Fallbrook High School was admitted to the hospital with the potentially deadly staph bug infection, known as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus.
Government reports have estimated that the dangerous strain sickens more than 90,000 Americans each year and kills nearly 19,000.
"I think that awareness is heightened now," Brown said, about staph infections at school sites.
-- Contact staff writer Stacy Brandt at (760) 901-4009 or sbrandt@nctimes.com.
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es wrote on Feb 28, 2008 9:44 AM:The big question here that's not answered is was this an MRSA (drug-resistant) staph infection, which is much more dangerous. MRSA is what killed that kid in Ramona. Regular staph infections happen all the time and are not deadly if treated.
Wash, teach, treat wrote on Feb 28, 2008 10:09 AM:Parents must insist everyone wash hand (up to elbows) OFTEN, using the best antibacterial soap. Don't forget the fingernails! Ugh! Don't teachers notice the filthy dirty hands and nails of students? March the whole class to wash hands; perhaps the kids were not properly tuaght by parents. Save a life; insist on cleanliness. See that kid cough all over the kid sitting next to him? What did you do about it? Airborne, skin-to-skin - whatever transmission, it's going to get YOU.
your kidding right?!! wrote on Feb 28, 2008 9:03 PM:To wash,teach,treat: You have got to be kidding me! I work at a school and if you "marched" the whole class to the sinks to wash up everytime you saw a kid that was dirty, that sneezed, that coughed, that had a runny nose, that rubbed their eyes, or picked their nose...you would spend the ENTIRE day in the bathroom! Forget about teaching! How about parents keep their sick kids home and teach them how to be clean!
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