10 Steps to Prevent MRSA in Schools

October 31st, 2007 · 7 Comments

10-steps-MRSA-prevent-schools These are courtesy of my dear friends at RID:

1. Encourage students to clean their hands frequently

2. Parents, tuck a small container of hand sanitizer in your child’s book bag, if your child is mature enough to use it properly.

3. Educators, install dispensers of hand-sanitizer inside each classroom. Students should not have to get a hall pass and leave the classroom to clean their hands.

4. Warn students not to share gym clothes, towels, and other personal items. MRSA bacteria can live on fabrics and hard surfaces for up to ninety days.

5. Warns students against sharing bars of soap. Use pump dispensers only.

6. Educators, ensure that all shared sports equipment (wrestling mats, baseball gloves, gymnastics equipment) and locker room facilities such as benches are cleaned with detergents, which must remain on the surfaces for at least three minutes. Quickly spraying and wiping is not effective.

7. Educators, makes sure that when a student gets a cut or abrasion on the playground or in class, it is cleaned immediately by someone whose hands are also clean! Classrooms should have a first-aid kit or ready access to the help of a school nurse.

8. School authorities should investigate the anti-microbial coatings available for use on sports equipment and other high-touch surfaces, and washable keyboards for computers.

9. School authorities should periodically have surfaces in the gym and classrooms cultured, to know the extent of MRSA contamination.

10. Athletes, gym teachers, and coaches should be given extra awareness tools to reduce their heightened risk of exposure to MRSA.

7 responses so far ↓

Nick Voegele // Oct 31, 2007 at 8:25 am

This site is wonderful! When we found out my cousin’s son had MRSA two years ago there wasnt really much information on it. Then a friend of mine found she had it shortly there after. It is good to have information for people finally and to let people know how not to spread it and how to prevent getting it. And to also dispel some of the myths that surround it. Thank You!
Christina // Oct 31, 2007 at 8:30 am

Thanks Nick - thats very nice of you to say. My hubby had MRSA 3 years ago, and I could find almost nothing online about it, and that is the reason I started this site (and MRSAResources.com). We have a great community of folks supporting each other at our forum (http://forum.mrsaresources.com), if you ever need to refer anyone there - I sure hope you don’t. Take care!
Trisher Smith // Oct 31, 2007 at 10:12 am

Article in the Georgetown Times (SC) yesterday.
3 high schools in county have MRSA. I have long been aware of the dangers of this, as had a son contract it in the hospital in AZ in the 1980’s.
It never leaves your body! The paper and the schools have down played the dangers of this terrible bacteria. I am a home school advocate and teach 1 grandson at home, but another daughter has put her 2, I taught, in school this year. I am fearful all the time. The oldest in Jr. High has been sick with something this entire year.
Your web has more information and more warnings than the Department of Disease Control web.
Thanks for your work and efforts !
mrsa facts // Nov 1, 2007 at 3:08 am

Very good site, thank you for bringing this issue to more people.
Suzanne Brady // Nov 2, 2007 at 11:50 am

Thank you for this well written site, my husband contracted this internally at Emory in April 2007 in the hospital after surgery. He survived, but has since had the external type while undergoing radiation and again during chemo.
Our local paper seems to be getting the word out nearly weekly, and our local hospital in Gainesville, Ga, is doing the same. Just learned about animals getting it in today’s newspaper - Gainesville Times.

Are there any long term effects from this disease neurologically or physically? Thanks.
Bennet Ratcliff // Nov 26, 2007 at 9:00 pm

My friend found your blog. Great stuff. You should look into a new silver antimicrobial technology that is now available in t-shirts, athletic wear, etc. called SmartSilver. Go to
http://www.nanohorizons.com/SSconsumers.shtml
and see for yourself the antimicrobial and anti-odor benefits of this athletic wear.

Designed in the research labs at Penn State, this is the newest and most effective antimicrobial technology - and you wear it on your body. You can order t-shirts and polo’s online - either single pieces or in bulk at
http://www.mygarb.com/SmartSilver/

Please help us get the word out. Or if you have any questions, let me know.
Grant Lalli // Dec 12, 2007 at 11:20 am

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MRSA Notes