U.S. health experts seek to calm schools over superbug

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The headlines are disturbing -- schools closing for disinfection, a 17-year-old dead from a drug-resistant "superbug." But health officials said on Friday it is no new emergency and the best way to deal with the bacteria is simply to wash your hands.

The bug causing most of the concern is Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA -- a version of an everyday bacteria that causes pimples, sinus infection and, in rare cases, meningitis and blood infections.

What is worrying about MRSA is that it resists commonly used antibiotics -- but not all drugs.

"Extreme measures to 'disinfect' an environment like a school really aren't what is going to be most important in controlling transmission of MRSA," Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, an epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a telephone interview.

The bug made headlines this week because of a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association that it caused 94,000 serious infections and nearly 19,000 deaths in 2005 -- most of them in hospitals.

Then 21 schools in Bedford County, Virginia, were closed after a 17-year-old student died of an MRSA infection. Charles Pyle, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education, said a thorough cleaning was being done.

Many school districts, including the one in Washington, D.C., contacted parents to reassure them that there had been no cases of MRSA at their schools.

The Senate even passed an amendment on Thursday requiring the Agency for Health Research Quality within the Department of Health and Human Services to use $5 million to identify and suppress the spread of MRSA.