Metro NY reports that our man and Park Sloper Senator Charles Schumer is calling for a nationwide reporting system for MRSA, antibiotic-resistant strain of staph infection blamed for the death of a 12-year-old Brooklyn boy.
“We need all hands on deck and all eyes watching to ensure this superbug doesn’t pop up again and leading to the same tragic outcome,” Schumer said on Sunday. “Unfortunately, without labs and hospitals reporting MRSA infections, we’ll never know where the next case could pop up or if we have things fully under control.”
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 don’t respond to penicillin-related antibiotics once commonly used to treat them, but they can be treated with other drugs.
Brooklyn middle school student Omar Rivera had lesions on his legs and back, friends said. He was taken on Oct. 14 to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.