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This 2005 scanning electron micrograph sem depicted numerous clumps of Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, commonly referred to by the acronym MRSA.
A Westchester Village special-education school may not have been infected with an antibiotic-resistant strain of staph bacteria as initially feared, the city Health Department said.
“After hearing reports of a possible MRSA case at the Lewis and Clark School in the Bronx, the Health Department has been able to review laboratory test results and has found there are no confirmed cases of MRSA at the school,” a department spokesman said Thursday.
The announcement came after the school decided to notify parents of the possible presence of the superbug.
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Some parents were miffed after they learned that education officials at the Tratman Ave. school left them in the dark after the possible infection turned up earlier last week.
Joey Scarborough/New York Daily News
The city Department of Health was unable to confirm a case of MRSA inside the Lewis and Clark Special Education School, as initially suspected on Tuesday. MRSA, a strain of staph, can cause life-threatening blood infections and eat away at flesh.
The Department of Education said Wednesday that it was not required to provide public notification of “isolated cases” of the potentially deadly bacteria, but the school changed course the following day.
“I wanted to reach out to you to let you know that there may be a case of drug-resistant Staph infection (MRSA) at our school,” Principal Kuvana Jones Sanders said in a letter sent to parents.
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The germ, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, can cause nasty boils — and some strains can lead to “flesh-eating” pneumonia and life-threatening blood infections.
Dr. Belinda Ostrowsky, the director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at Montefiore Medical Center, said it can be tricky to make a diagnosis of the nasty bug.
“There are certain characteristics that may look more like a skin infection with community-acquired MRSA,” she said. “A skin infection can basically be another type of staph, or it could be strep.”
