Link: As schools reopen, warning on serious staph infection | Daily News | 08/30/2007.
With schools in Philadelphia about to reopen, City Councilman Jack Kelly yesterday issued an alert on a staph infection that on rare occasions can become deadly.
Kelly called a news conference outside City Hall to issue a warning about the dangers of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA).
As its name implies, the bacteria infection that starts out as a boil on the skin is resistant to antibiotics.
"This is a deadly serious public- health problem," said Kelly.
When Council resumes Sept. 20, Kelly said he would move to have September declared MRSA Awareness Month.
Present at yesterday’s news conference was Theresa Drew, mother of Ricky Lannetti, a former Father Judge High School football player who contracted MRSA while a senior at Lycoming College in 2003.
Lannetti died at age 21 and his mother has established Ricky’s MRSA Awareness Foundation in his memory.
Dr. Rob Bettiker, of Temple University’s Infectious Diseases Department, also at the conference, said that MRSA was once a staph infection mostly contracted in hospitals.
In recent years, he said, MRSA has become a "community-acquired" infection. It can now survive on a person’s skin and can be transmitted through the sharing of towels, combs, razors, wash cloths or soaps.
