yes...my school is infected with staph!!

Anthony275 wrote: i dont understand how 3+ people in only the highschool have it... we just had a speech about it in gym class. does anybody wash their hands anymore? ugh

gr33n3y3z replied: hmmm I guess they like to share drinks also

grapfruit replied:
This is how meningitus (sp?) is spread in the "upper" grades too....

jcc64 replied: about the hand-washing thing. When you were a kid, did anyone think it was necessary to wash your hands compulsively, or that it was even a realistic thing to hope for? Kids are herded from one activity to the next at school- can you imagine how long it would take for each and every kid to stop and wash his/her hands before/after the playground, lunchroom, gym equipment, etc...They'd be doing nothing else. Hand washing might help prevent the spread of an insideous infection- but the better question to ask is- why is this bacteria, that has always been present to an extent in health care institutions, exploding out into the general population now? We've gone over this before here. We need to look at our food supply and our health care practices (anti-biotics specifically). Then we can talk about personal hygene. But I really think it's unrealistic to expect school aged children to be washing their hands every 5 minutes.

Insanemomof3 replied:
I could not agree more.

Anthony275 replied: yeah but that's lower-age kids. i understand what you're saying, but nobody washes their hands after gym in the weight room, or after the bathroom. in science after we do something nobody washes their hands either. i wash my hands after i pick something up from the floor whereas nobody else does

Calimama replied:
I agree, in high school you can take the time and wash your hands.

luvmykids replied: Yuck. At least you washing your hands will help you somewhat.

jcc64 replied: First of all, I don't think it's up to us to decide where to send the disease. Oh, gee, let's send it to high school- they're old enough to remember to wash their hands. But let's keep it out of elementary and pre-k- it doesn't work that way, right?
And fwiw, I have high school kids. They have even less time to get to and from class. My kids have exactly 3 minutes to get from one end of a very large building to the next. If they're late, they get detention, or some other ridiculous meaningless punishment. Trust me, guys, we're trying to close the door after the horse has left the barn already.

Anthony275 replied: i have 3 minutes too..but im pretty sure there's soap in the bathrooms and in the science rooms

MyBrownEyedBoy replied: Ok, once again, staph is everywhere. Everyone has some form of it on their skin, it's a normal, beneficial flora. Yes, it can become resistant, yes, it can cause problems. But it exists in the environment, everywhere. Handwashing helps, but some people are going to get it anyway.

PrairieMom replied:

Kentuckychick replied:
Agreed!

And I'll eat my words from the last time when I said that cleaning with bleach could help prevent it... I was wrong.

My father sells cleaning supplies to businesses, schools, federal prisons, etc... and this is one of the major things they've been dealing with in the past several weeks. He has gone to all of his area schools and he said he's appauled at the cleaning (or rather lack of cleaning) that occurs. He said that the bleach sprays (clorox cleanup) and mixing bleach water only sanitize an area, that schools should be cleaning with actual disinfectants that say on the bottle they kill bacteria, viruses AND staph (they will even list the specific types). He said that the schools should be cleaning with these daily, teachers in each room should be spraying their desks and that it's NOT just because of these staph infections. He said it's proper cleaning protocol. He said when you work in a place with that many individuals, especially children then it should be your concern to protect yourself and those kids. He sells a CDC and federal goverment approved product that is now in all of his schools here (they are even requesting it for individual classrooms).

And as far as handwashing goes, it should be a rule in every school. I think cafeterias should have sinks and the children should wash as they go in.

Even with disinfecting daily you can never prevent 100% of anything. However, you can go a long way in preventing a whole lot of things!

lisar replied:

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied:
ITA. I don't think it really has anything to do with hand washing. All it takes is someone to have a little open cut on the finger and the bacteria gets in there. Wesley's PT and I were just talking about this and she said she got it in HS from swapping knee pads in school volleyball. It's in sweat. She had a tiny cut on her knee and wham, she got it from wearing someone else's pads.

Wil had a small cut on his finger once when he was an infant and it got a little red and pussy. I took him to the ped and he said it was a form of staph. I asked how he got it, especially when I thought I was so careful about handwashing, and he explained that staph is everywhere, on our furniture, on our skin. I'm sure using anti-bacterial soap helps, but like Kelly said, some people are going to get it anyway.