This group of students and their teacher at Career High School were riveted by a presentation by a local physician about a new drug-resistant infection called MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). And they had plenty of questions, like, Can it kill you? Answer: Yes.
A study released in mid-October indicated MRSA has left the confines of hospitals and nursing homes and is popping up in communities around the country, including in Connecticut, including in high schools.
Hill Health Center pediatrician Steve Updegrove (pictured) came in to a combined class of students from the forensics and introduction to public health classes (Career High focuses on careers in health) with his PowerPoint presentation about MRSA. He explained how the bacteria that cause MRSA are transmitted — through skin to skin contact, cuts and abrasions, contaminated items and surfaces, crowded conditions and poor hygiene. He said it can be treated with certain antibiotics, which, like all such drugs, must be taken for a full course of treatment to be effective. And he said it can be avoided by practicing good hygiene — including washing hands with friction and soap for 20 long seconds — and by not sharing sports equipment or personal care products.
He explained that those with compromised or weak immune systems are especially at risk, like older people and very young children. He told the teens before him that their immune systems are probably “about as good as they’re going to get,” which would seemingly make them less likely to catch MRSA. But in fact some of the populations of greatest concern are high school and college students.
Junior Tiffanny Little (pictured) asked about that seeming contradiction. Updegrove answered that, while teens’ immune systems are generally strong, they are too young to have built up much immunity to infection, so if exposed to something like MRSA, it can take hold relatively easily.
A boy in the class said, hopefully, “You can’t die from it, right?”
Well, yes you can, the doc said, if a skin infection is allowed to fester and deepen to an abscess and then get into the bloodstream, and still not be treated. He said MRSA “is like the cat that’s out of the bag; it’s now part of our environment.” But he cautioned that people shouldn’t go overboard in their response to it. Click here tohear more of whathe had to say..
He emphasized the need to wash and cover scrapes to minimize the chance of the infection spreading, as well as the importance of washing sports uniforms that are sweaty, dirty and maybe bloody.
Little asked if there’s a vaccine for MRSA (not yet), and if there ever is one, will teenagers be among the first to get it. Another asked if MRSA is like an STD (sexually transmitted disease) in that one could have it without knowing it and pass it on. Another wanted to know if it can be passed on by a pregnant woman to her baby. Not, Updegrove said, like a mother can pass on HIV to her baby as it’s born (or through nursing), but obviously if a woman has MRSA she must be extremely careful when handling her baby.
To a question of whether anti-bacterial soaps (advertised as able to kill 99.9 percent of bacteria) could kill useful bacteria and thus increase the chances for an outbreak of harmful bacteria, Updegrove said there is no evidence for that at this point. He reiterated the importance of cleanliness and prompt treatment of any skin infections before they turn into something more serious.
