TodayStaph infection reported at Big Spring
Big Spring confirms infection of football player, postpones all football activities for 72 hours.
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Article RatingA Big Spring High School football player has a staph infection, district officials confirmed Thursday.
One test taken from skin lesions of football players came back positive Thursday for staph, Big Spring Superintendent Rich Fry said.
The infection is limited to the football team, Fry said. As a result, all football activities for students in grades 7-12, including practices and games, have been halted for 72 hours, Fry said. The varsity football game against Hanover scheduled for Friday night will be played Monday at 7 p.m.
The district has sanitized its fitness center and asked student-athletes to sanitize their equipment, Fry said. The fitness center will be sanitized again within 72 hours, he added.
Desktops are already sanitized each night, Fry said, but the district will also clean its light switches, door knobs and buses.
Within 24 hours, they will know if the confirmed infection is a case of MRSA, Fry said. The precautions taken for MRSA are the same as those taken for staph infections. No students are being kept out of school, Fry said.
Updates are being posted on the district’s Web site at www.bigspringsd.org.
Friday night game
Big Spring played its season-opener last Friday night against Boiling Springs High School at Ecker Field on the campus at South Middleton School District. SMSD officials were notified of the possibility of staph earlier this week. The Big Spring football team used the girls’ locker room at Yellow Breeches Middle School during the game, SMSD Superintendent Patricia Sanker said.
The custodial staff had cleaned the locker room on Friday, she said. On Tuesday, South Middleton disinfected the showers, locker rooms and weight rooms in all the district’s schools with a MRSA-resistant cleaner, Sanker said.
Parents of South Middleton middle school students were notified of the possible staph infection via a letter sent home on Wednesday, Sanker said.
On Thursday and Friday, coaches in South Middleton distributed letters to their players alerting them that one case had been confirmed, reminding them of the importance of good hygiene and offering suggestions for prevention, Sanker said.
There have been no reported cases of infection in South Middleton, Sanker added.
NFL problems
Several NFL teams have struggled in recent years to prevent outbreaks of staph and MRSA in locker rooms.
An NFL physicians survey of the 32 clubs determined there were 33 MRSA staph infections leaguewide from 2006-08.
Former Penn State star and Cleveland Browns receiver Joe Jurevicius sued the team and the Cleveland Clinic in June, saying the team misrepresented the cleanliness of its training facility and blaming doctors with negligence over a staph infection in his right knee that kept him from playing last year.
The lawsuit alleges that physicians Anthony Miniaci and Richard Figler failed to warn Jurevicius that therapy equipment was not always sanitized at the team’s training facility in suburban Berea.
Jurevicius has said he contracted staph following arthroscopic surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in January 2008. As a result, the lawsuit said, “Jurevicius may never be able to play professional football again.”
Jurevicius, a die-hard Cleveland fan who attended Browns games as a kid, was released by the club in March.
Fred Nance, an attorney for the Browns, said Friday the lawsuit is being reviewed but that the Browns deny its allegations. He said the team’s facilities are compliant with all NFL requirements.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
