Oct 26, 2007 9:19 am US/Central
'Superbug' Staph Infection Kills NYC Schoolboy
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
A 12-year-old Brooklyn schoolboy was killed by the "superbug," a drug-resistant staph infection, city health officials said.
The victim, identified by New York newspapers as Omar Rivera, died Oct. 14.
Rivera was a student at Intermediate School 211 in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn, where an electronic marquee read: "Our hearts go out to our young angel!"
Student Andrew McKenzie, 13, said the victim had shown him sores on his legs and back two weeks ago.
"I didn't know what to do, so I just sent him to the nurse," Andrew said. "From then, I never saw him again."
The school remained open, but Principal Buffie Simmons-Peart urged parents in a letter to tell the school about "any diagnosed or suspected infectious condition" and to talk to their children about good hygiene.
"We just don't know where this young boy picked up this particular infection, but again our hearts go out to the family and we are in total unison with the Department of Health and the Department of Education," Simmons said in a report by CBS station WCBSTV in New York.
City health officials said there was "no reason to believe that other children or school employees are at increased risk," saying deadly staph infections were unusual outside health care settings.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, or MRSA, have gained attention since a government report this month found more than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly staph infections each year.
The bacteria can be carried by healthy people, living on their skin or in their noses. Most drug-resistant staph cases are mild skin infections, but severe infections can enter the bloodstream or destroy flesh and become deadly.
The bacteria do not respond to penicillin-related antibiotics once commonly used to treat them, partly because of overuse. They can be treated with other drugs.
The disease has been blamed for the death of a 17-year-old Virginia high school senior this month. At least seven students on Long Island have recently been diagnosed with MRSA, as were 10 members of an athletic team at Iona College in New Rochelle.
The director of surveillance for the city Health Department's Bureau of Communicable Disease said the risk of other students contracting the infection from a computer keyboard or table, for example, was "extremely low." The director, Dr. Don Weiss, said the case of the student who died may have been complicated by other factors so far unknown.
The Health Department has proposed mandatory reporting of the illness, so the agency can track the number of cases. Meanwhile, state officials have issued instructions for schools and New Yorkers on how to deal with the infection.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
