COQUILLE — Officials at the Coquille School District are taking precautions against a contagious, drug-resistant type of bacteria. Their concern follows a number of confirmed case of the bacteria in the past few months at schools in the county.

“We are taking what precautions we can,” said Coquille School Superintendent Diann Gillaspie, who spoke about the new preventative measures against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, at the Nov. 19 meeting of the School Board.

MRSA is a bacteria responsible for hard-to-treat infections and is common in places with shared and close contact conditions, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. These include military barracks, daycare centers and schools. MRSA is normally transmitted by direct skin-to-skin contact or shared contact with items or surfaces that have been touched by a person who has the infection.  

There have been no reports of MRSA at any school in the Coquille District, Gillaspie said, so the increased vigilance against MRSA is not a response to any local cases. However, district officials discussed the problem in light of recent stories concerning the infection.

Coquille’s precautions include hand-washing stations in some classrooms. For rooms without washing stations, the district has provided hand sanitizer. Other steps include discussions with principals at each school and the placement of posters about proper hygiene at campuses across the district.

One of the most important steps people can take to prevent MRSA is keeping their skin clean, said Sherry Cleghorn, clinic services program manager at Coos County Public Health. In addition, it’s important to cover any cut, no matter how small, to prevent infection, she said. Parents should teach their children the importance of good hygiene at an early age, she added.

“(Teach) your children from preschool up to wash their hands,” she said.

If a person believes he has a unusual infection, he should go to his doctor immediately to prevent transmission to other people, she said. It’s also important for him to follow the treatment prescribed by his doctor.

In October, a student at Southwestern Oregon Community College was quarantined after it was discovered he had the potentially life-threatening condition.

Another scare occurred in North Bend later that month, when a student at the city’s high school was thought to have the infection. In response, the school’s janitorial staff disinfected classrooms, the nurse’s office and other locations the student had frequented.  The student was not allowed to return to the school without a note from his doctor stating that he posed no danger to the school population.

A student from Bandon High School was treated at a local hospital in October after developing the infection. In that case, officials sent letters to the homes of all students in the district, reminding children and their parents to practice good hygiene.

Despite the recent MRSA issues, Cleghorn said she knows of no deaths in the area attributed to the infection.

For students in Coquille, the district’s precautions are just another piece of an overall prevention program.

“The bottom line is good hygiene,” Gillaspie said.