Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths Releases 10 Lifesaving Steps to Protect Students from MRSA Infections

    NEW YORK, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following was released
 by the Committee to Reduce Infection as an advisory to prevent MRSA
 infections among students:
 
     1. Encourage students to clean their hands frequently.
     2. Parents, tuck a small container of hand sanitizer in your child's
 book bag, if your child is mature enough to use it properly.
     3. Educators, install dispensers of hand-sanitizer inside each
 classroom. Students should not have to get a hall pass and leave the
 classroom to clean their hands.
     4. Warn students not to share gym clothes, towels, and other personal
 items. MRSA bacteria can live on fabrics and hard surfaces for up to ninety
 days.
     5. Warn students against sharing bars of soap. Use pump dispensers
 only.
     6. Educators, ensure that all shared sports equipment (wrestling mats,
 baseball gloves, gymnastics equipment) and locker room facilities such as
 benches are cleaned with detergents, which must remain on the surfaces for
 at least three minutes. Quickly spraying and wiping is not effective.
     7. Educators, make sure that when a student gets a cut or abrasion on
 the playground or in class, it is cleaned immediately by someone whose
 hands are also clean! Classrooms should have a first-aid kit or ready
 access to the help of a school nurse.
     8. School authorities should investigate the anti-microbial coatings
 available for use on sports equipment and other high-touch surfaces, and
 washable keyboards for computers.
     9. School authorities should periodically have surfaces in the gym and
 classrooms cultured, to know the extent of MRSA contamination.
     10. Athletes, gym teachers, and coaches should be given extra awareness
 tools to reduce their heightened risk of exposure to MRSA.
 
     Betsy McCaughey, Chairman and founder of the Committee to Reduce
 Infection Deaths is available immediately for interviews.
     Visit: http://www.hospitalinfection.org
 
 
 

SOURCE Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths