By Joie Tyrrell
joie.tyrrell@newsday.com
A handful of additional Long Island schools reported Tuesday that students have been recently diagnosed with the drug-resistant staph infection known as MRSA, joining a growing list of districts across both counties that have said the infection has been found in their schools.
Among the latest districts are Cold Spring Harbor and Riverhead, where officials sent alerts to parents this week. School officials in Cold Spring Harbor said a student had been infected, but was "not seriously ill, is doing well and is being treated at home with antibiotics."
[To read the full text of the Cold Spring Harbor letter, click here.]
Riverhead officials said two students there were diagnosed with the infection and the students are being treated with proper antibiotics.
A 12-year-old Brooklyn boy and a 17-year-old Virginia high school student died this month after contracting MRSA infections. Several other nonlethal cases have been reported recently on Long Island. Health officials have urged residents not to panic, saying there is no MRSA outbreak and that the infections are treatable.
There will be a meeting with the Suffolk County Executive, the Commissioner of Health and the school superintendents Wednesday to discuss preventative measures in ways to keep school children healthy.
MRSA is a common bacteria that is not a threat to the average person. Contrary to some published reports, the MRSA infection is treatable if the proper antibiotics are prescribed.
MRSA is resistant to the antibiotic Methicillin, however, there are stronger antibiotics that can combat this infection. MRSA has been in the United States for the past five decades primarily in institutional settings such as hospital and nursing facilities. It has become more common in recent years to see these cases in the community setting, according to Suffolk health officials.
Medical experts say the best way to prevent MRSA from spreading is frequent and diligent hand-washing.