On October 18th a letter was sent home to Charles County public school students stating:
Charles County Public Schools has not had any reported cases of community-acquired methicillin-resistant staphylococcus infection (CA-MRSA), more commonly known as a “staph” infection, but we would like to share ways to help students reduce their risk of contracting the infection.
Within a week of receiving that notice, parents of La Plata’s Mitchell Elementary received another stating that a case of MRSA has indeed been diagnosed on one of the students there. The child’s parent reported the contagious disease to the school.
On Thursday, a parent reported another case; this time at the F.B. Gwynn Educational Center in La Plata.
If these parents had not notified the school system of their children’s MRSA diagnoses, chances are the public would not know to be more careful.
Despite the infection’s contagious and antibiotic resistant behavior, local healthcare providers have no responsibility to report MRSA cases to either CCPS or the Charles County Health Department because MRSA is not listed as a legally “reportable disease” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (MDHMH).
The Bay Net spoke with Civista Medical Center, the Charles County Health Department and Charles County Public Schools to learn how they regard the disease and what the protocol is after a diagnosis of the infection has occurred locally.
MRSA, as mentioned on TheBayNet.com earlier this week, is not a reportable disease unless there is an outbreak, said Bill Leebel, the public information officer for the Charles County Health Department. He defined an outbreak as three laboratory confirmed cases at the same location or school within a three week period.
“We’ve had none in this calendar year reported to us,” said Leebel.
Debbie Shuck-Reynolds, Emergency Room Clinical Coordinator at Civista Medical Center, told The Bay Net, “MRSA is not reportable or trackable in any means, shape or form until the Health Officer says we need this tracked. If he tells us to track it, we track it and report it to the Health Department.”
Shuck-Reynolds told The Bay Net that she had no statistics to share regarding MRSA cases in school age children in the county. She said that she sees about 115 patients a day in the Civista ER and over a three week period if a case of MRSA, or several, came back from the laboratory it still wouldn’t be reportable.
