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Stopping the Spreadof MRSA and Other Preventable Infections in School Settings.

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Stopping the Spreadof MRSA and Other Preventable Infections in School Settings

BY SUSAN MOORE

Distributors can help stop the spread of infectious diseases in schools by educating customers, providing them with the products and by instituting effective hand-washing promotional campaigns.

It's hard to believe in our society of advanced medicine and technological innovation that deadly infections which have been around for decades are on the rise. What's even more unbelievable about this increase is that there is a simple way of preventing them -- proper hand washing.

According to the October 17, 2007, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections occur more frequently than we once realized and cost the U.S. healthcare system more than $2.5 billion a year. MRSA infections have been around a long time but have mostly been limited to healthcare settings. In recent years, however, there has been an increase in the number of cases in the community, including schools. In fact, these "community-associated" infections (those occurring in people who do not have healthcare risk factors) account for 12 percent of infections.

Protecting our schools

MRSA outbreaks in schools across the nation have been widely reported in the media. According to the Centers for Disease Control, schools are breeding grounds for the bacteria causing MRSA because they are often crowded; there is frequent skin-to-skin contact; students can have compromised...

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