"Superbug" Kills NYC Schoolboy

12-Year-Old 7th Grader Succumbs To Drug-Resistant Staph Infection

(CBS/AP)  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.

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.

[newsreader57]

Why didn''t his parents notice the sores and take him to the hospital?

[whatithink-2009]

Maybe he only noticed it once he was in school.

[connapa]

His parents probably didn''t notice because at that age, teens are showering by themselves. Combine that with a fairly poor universal body image at that age, and something that should be noticeable will go covered and unnoticed until it is too late- such as in this case. If it had been summer and he was in a swimsuit, someone would have noticed. Having a good rapport with your child will open the lines of communication and they will be more apt to inform you when something like this is going on.

[riggie3]

MRSA can kill in 48 hours or less once the ''blisters'' appear, and there may only be a couple of small ones. It can go inside and kill via septecemia, which is basically systemic infection spread thru blood from an infection in another part of the body. This child probably thought it was a bug bite, or rash, which is very common.

[oscarez]

If you think you have a drug-resistant staph infection applied Bee Honey topically on the skin sores. It may save your life.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20040258765.html

[GRPDiver]

If you think you have a drug-resistant staph infection applied Bee Honey topically on the skin sores. Posted by Oscarez at 10:37 AM : Oct 26, 2007

Can you spell I-G-N-O-R-A-N-T? I looked at the URL and it does not purport to address drug-resistant staph infections as you claim; it is for sores and lesions to the skin. Ignorance like this is why children like this one die. What''s next, coffee enemas to cure colon cancer?

[rf36]

Antibacterial this and sanitizing that. This is what it gets you...drug-resistant bugs. Resist the urge to use every cleaner and soap you can find that claims to be "antibacterial." You''re not protecting your family, you''re putting them in greater danger. The stuff that kills 99.9% of bacteria leaves the .1% that survive stronger and resistant to the product.

[enlightenu]

There is a very not well known treatment to fight bacteriological infections when they are drug resistant. It is called bacteriophage therapy, and the FDA and drug companies have conspired to keep this quiet and illegal because it is so cheap and effective. Basically all it does is utilize specific viruses that consume only bacteria to destroy the infection. When the bacteria is gone the virus dies off. Simple, and cheap. But you would have to travel overseas to be treated. Remember, if you contract MRSA or anything else penicillin resistant, look to bacteriophage therapy. It will save your life.

[oleander8]

West Nile scare stories have run their course, so have SARS stories, bird-flu virus and what-not...so the media has hung their sensationalism on Superbug killer staph infections. Rather than scaring the public why doesn''t the media focus on the overuse of antibiotics on the animals in the foodchain? Because that''s where the immunity is coming from.

[riggie3]

Being in the medical field, this is not hype..
The incidence of MRSA has exploded in the last 3 years. This is the real thing. We used to see it occasionally, now we see it almost daily.

[krenz4]

We are going to see a resurgence of a lot more diseases and infections, as long as Americans are being urged to sterilize and disinfect everything we touch. Sure, handwashing is the best thing we can do to protect ourselves, but killing germs and sterilizing everything in the house is NOT a good idea. All these bacteria have an opportunity to adapt and become resistant or impervious to antibiotics and such. Anyone who looks at all the products being pushed on us through fear tactics, would have seen this coming a mile away!

[enlightenu]

"Phages work in direct contact with the infection, so they are applied directly to an open wound or biofilm e.g. sinuses, boils, interdental cavities and ulcers. There are very large numbers of individual successes, anecdotal evidence and case studies in the former USSR- including where other therapies had failed. Many researchers studying infectious diseases have little doubt that phage therapy has a contribution to make and will achieve mainstream medical relevance in the 21st century. Large clinical trials from Poland have reported the efficacy of phage therapy, and research continues because of the alarming rise of multiple antibiotic resistance worldwide. Phase 2 human clinical trials are nearing completion in a London hospital with ear infections, and Phase 1 clinical trials are taking place in Lubbock, Texas in a wound care context."
-from Wikipedia article

Phage therapy predates antibiotics, but antibiotics were more profitable, and phages were associated with "Commie medicine".

[krenz4]

furthermore, overuse of antibiotics has made some people (read: those with money who have all the money or coverage they need to take little Johnny or susie to the doctor every time they sniffle to get a prescription), Are the ones who are going to most sorry. they are wide open for infections of all kinds, what living in their sterile homes and living on Antibiotics!

[bks59]

I had to look it up and this is what i found in Wikepedia:

This article is about a biological infectious particle; for other uses, see phage (disambiguation).

An artist''s rendering of an Enterobacteria phage T4.A bacteriophage (from ''bacteria'' and Greek phagein, ''to eat'') is any one of a number of viruses that infect bacteria. The term is commonly used in its shortened form, phage.

Typically, bacteriophages consist of an outer protein hull enclosing genetic material. The genetic material can be dsRNA, ssDNA, or dsDNA between 5 and 500 kilo base pairs long with either circular or linear arrangement. Bacteriophages are much smaller than the bacteria they destroy - usually between 20 and 200 nm in size.

They have been used for over 60 years as an alternative to antibiotics in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. They are now seen as a hope against multi drug resistant strains of many bacteria.

[paintballzr]

Go see the movie BUG and see what unneeded paranoia will do for you... These days there''s always one virus or another to fear, whats a few more! So just keep practicing good hygiene, but at the same time balance it with a recreational dive into some dirt.

[hissteps4u]

One of the Many reasons this has developed is the Over use of Medications by people who insist on Antibiotics for ailments which can not benifit by their use YET they insist on prescriptions and DR''s who fear loosing Patients fulfil their wishs all to regularly by giving in to their requests.

As a retired Nurse I see this all to often. Demand verses need and The Pharmacuticle companies play a part in this through their ever increasing advertizement of drugs to sell it is such big Business now we are killing ourselves by listening to them and in requesting medicans which we dont need and wont benifit from and bringing about strains of diseases which are resistant to the medicin now and what use to be something we can cure is now something we can barley manage and will soon loose the opportunity to cure.

The Public is Ignorant of the truth and the physicians are stupid to continue to follow the whims of a demanding public for antibiotics for sniffles to sneezes and DR''s give in all to easily for the Money. Its just the plain and simple truth

[popper242]

HELLO NEED LARGE TYPE-ONLY ONE EYE..SORRY

HAVE HAD MRSA FOR 3-5 YEARS AT A COST OF AT LEAST ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND IN TESTS, HOSPITALS, AND REHAB HOMES.
I AM A CARRIER-I CAN KILL PEOPLE. MRSA IS EVERYPLACE WE GO ( SUBWAY )??? I HAVE BEEN SO SICK AND NOW OTHERS DIE--THIS CAN BE THE END OF US. WANT MY MEDICAL RECORDS--MY STORY IS FREE--BIG NEWS..
JUST GOT ANOTHER BILL FOR 30,000 TAX DOLLARS.. AT LEAST THE FOOD IS GOOD.. ADP 212 569 6572

[jsilver2th]

honestly this is scarier than some shoe on a bus in Europe- CDC and the "health care" industry have known this day was coming- now will they continue to flounder?

[maddysmom2]

Hello my name is Beth and I know all too well what havoc this deadly bacteria can cause. My daughter Madeline Renee Reimer passed away on July 22nd, 2005 because of it.She was a twin and was only 8 weeks old.
Out of a family of 5 there were 4 of us who had some form of the superbug.Sadly we will hear more and more about this equal opportunity destroyer, known as MRSA. I live in a southern suburb of Chicago and two local schools have closed for deep cleaning and there have been 5 cases reported in our area. All cases have been treated and the children are now able to return to school.There was a case of a preschooler in our area also. I fear that this will be the first of many that we as a nation will hear about.Must say that the notion of good hand hygiene is crucial there needs to be more screening and therefore early treatment of this bacteria.Illinios just passed a bill that mandates screening in ICU and NICU units in the state.It also requires hospitals report there numbers.Wait when those numbers surface, we will see how much of an problem this is becomming.

[jetranger7]

This sounds like a Government manufactured Virus, they''ve come up with to rid the country of certain people, who don''t agree with certain kind of politics or go along with some arrogrant repulsive politicians who have a whole different agenda for us. Remember the Movie with Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo called where the whole town was infected and the rogue government answer was to nuke the entire town ??

[erasmus6]

"This sounds like a Government manufactured Virus, they''''ve come up with to rid the country of certain people, who don''''t agree with certain kind of politics or go along with some arrogrant repulsive politicians who have a whole different agenda for us." posted by JetRanger7

The paranoia in the U.S. is mind boggling. I realize you have an idiot for president and a corrupt government, but not EVERYTHING is Bush''s fault. This is the idiot doctors fault for giving people antibiotics when they don''t need them. AND this is the idiot patients fault for not following the directions on how to take them. Needless to say there is a world full of idiots.

[enlightenu]

The term "superbug" is relative. It is labeled the scare term superbug because it is resistant to the best drugs pharmaceutical companies can muster up now with outdated methods. In reality it is not any different in strength than other bugs, its just that we don''t have the right key for this one at the moment. Think of it as like having the right key for the right lock. The problem is that the right key won''t be found in antibiotics. Bacteria can evolve faster than we can develop new antibiotics, and in the meantime people will die. The key can be found in bacteriophages. Bacteria can''t evolve fast enough to overcome bacteriophage therapy.

The bubonic plague (Black Death) killed 100 million world wide in the dark ages. The right key for it (or for anything else) didn''t exist then, but today it is easily treatable.

[sharncedar]

This is where capitalism fails - there is no profit motive for the hyper-greedy in producing certain kinds of vaccines or antibiotics. so in our ruthless, neo-capitalist system, where every investment has to make 10%, these vaccines and antibiotics simply won''t get produced.

This system is a disaster, no society can survive based on greed. There must be some counterbalancing ethics, but the neo-capitalists have none. Either we begin to fight them, or we lose whatever is left they haven''t sold, stolen, or outsourced.

[trenticus-2009]

HIV will NEVER have a cure because then people would just get lazy and irresponsible about their s^e^x^u^a^l habits and because drug companies would lose money. There''s no profit in cures.

[nothappyatall]

This is the end result of the over use and hysteria of "germs" with people raising kids in homes that resemble hospitals, using hand "sanitizers" toilet "sanitizers" everything they buy for cleaning is an anti bacterial "sanitizer"
No one needs a toilet bowl or floor SANITIZED for christ sake! these products kill 99% of the germs and bacteria but those are not the ones you need to worry about, it''s the 1% LEFT BEHIND that you need to worry about.
I firmly believe these hospital like homes people raise kids in now are THE cause of their widespread allergies and other ailments- people it ant normal to be allergic to common natural plants, grass, trees etc that grow all over the world!
Its not natural to be almost put into the hospital because of a little dust or pet dander!
The kids immune system never develops because its never challenged due to the hospital homes, then when they ARE exposed to something ther immune system goes haywire and is unable to cope!

[nothappyatall]

DO some research into the 19th century and you''ll find people lived in FILTH, few even had indoor plumbing, but they didnt have all these wierd immune system disorders, Multiple sclerosis, Lou Gherrigs disease, allergies and all the rest that we seem to have a LOT of now.

Heck, they didn''t even have air conditioners antibiotics OR pasteurized milk.
I work with two people whose homes are like hospitals one has allergies galore and is on all kinds of meds, the other''s now grown daughters have extreme sensitivity to any chemicals, fumes, odors, cleaning products, carpeting etc.

Coincidence?