MRSA Infection Scare In Fallbrook False Alarm
Doctor's Error, Parental Mistakes Account For Misdiagnoses
POSTED: 8:03 am PDT March 17,
2008
UPDATED: 8:17 am PDT March 17,
2008
FALLBROOK, Calif. -- Four of five recently reported cases of a drug-resistant staph infection at Fallbrook schools turned out to be something else, it was reported Monday.Lab tests have dismissed all but one of the five cases believed to be methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, according to The North County Times.The patient in the fifth case, still believed to have been MRSA, has recovered, the newspaper reported.
All five cases involved children in the Fallbrook Union Elementary School District. Of the four misdiagnosed cases, one appears to be from a doctor's error and the other three parent mistakes, the Times reported.School district spokesman Jim Whitlock told the newspaper that despite the false alarms, the district doesn't regret taking extra precautions when it believed a major outbreak was near."I think out of all this, we've got one case that we can say, without a doubt, was MRSA," Whitlock told the Times. "I don't regret for an instant all the disinfecting that we've done, or the notices that we've sent to parents. I think it was the right thing to do."A so-called superbug, MRSA was blamed for the death of a 13-year-old boy from Encinitas earlier this year. It also caused a Fallbrook wrestling coach to be hospitalized.
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