NORWALK—A 5-year-old child in Norwalk Catholic School (NCS) was recently diagnosed with the potentially deadly staph infection, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and both school and church officials were ready to handle this or any future outbreaks of disease.

“We have procedures in place,” says Jack Altenburger, superintendent of Catholic schools for the diocese. “All principals in the diocese have received guidelines to follow in the case of any health epidemic. Everyone in the schools knows the procedure.”

NCS President Walt Klimaski followed those directives in the recent case in the Norwalk preschool.
Mr. Klimaski says the child’s parents took the child to a doctor and received a diagnosis of MRSA on a Friday, then contacted the child’s teacher. The teacher reported it to school officials and Mr. Klimaski cancelled class for the pre-kindergarten class the following Monday so the classroom, bathrooms, reading area and playground could be thoroughly disinfected to kill any lingering staph infection.

NCS sent information on MRSA home to all parents in the district immediately, along with suggested preventative measures, and posted it on the district’s Web site.  

“In this case, everyone involved has done their job,” Huron County Health Commissioner Tim Hollinger says. The parents took their child to a doctor when they suspected a problem, then quickly informed school officials. School officials then called the county health department. “Classes were cancelled for that child’s classroom only out of an abundance of caution,” Mr. Hollinger says.

The student with MRSA fully recovered and suffers no lasting effects from the infection.

MRSA, an infection resistant to broad-spectrum antibiotics, results in no more than a skin infection for most people, but national attention has focused on the disease after a high school student in Virginia died, a suburban Dayton school temporarily closed, and it was found in a district in southwest Ohio.

Father Michael Billian, episcopal vicar, moderator of the Curia and chancellor of the diocese, says a parish’s response to MRSA would depend on where the outbreak occurs.

“If it was running through families in the parish, it would be similar to instructions for the bird flu,” Fr. Billian says. The diocese would follow plans developed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in 2005 in response to the spread of bird flu in Canada. The plan can be used to stop the spread of most communicable diseases transmitted through casual contact, he adds.

In the 2005 directive, the USCCB says Eucharistic ministers are encouraged to wash their hands and use anti-bacterial cleansers before and after distributing Communion.

Anyone who feels ill is advised not to receive from the cup. If necessary, liturgical adaptations can be made including limiting reception of holy Communion to just the host to keep from spreading germs through common use of a chalice. All vessels and items used at Mass should be carefully cleansed.

If a staph infection was being spread on parish property, Fr. Billian says, the parish would immediately contact the county health department and close the buildings until they could be disinfected.

“We would have to close the buildings so the entire facility could be sterilized,” he says. “If that happened over a weekend, we would have to transfer Masses to another site — another parish or perhaps a community building.”

People have suggested banning parishioners from shaking hands as a sign of peace, Fr. Billian says, but diocesan officials don’t want to lose the fellowship of that part of the Mass and see no need for such a drastic measure. The Toledo Diocese has never seen a severe outbreak of any communicable disease, he adds.

“What we don’t want people to do is for people to go crazy on the issue.” he says.

For more information on MRSA, contact a county health department or visit the Web site for the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention at www.cdc.gov.