GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY -- Students are taking extra precautions at Traverse City West High School, where two unlinked cases of MRSA have been reported this school year.
At least one of those cases was a football player.
“My friend had a bump on his leg that progressed more and more…then we ended up getting a call that he went to the doctors and it was confirmed it was MRSA and they were holding him there,” said Cody Scheuerman, a senior football player at Traverse City West.
MRSA is a type of Staph Infection and is most commonly transmitted by skin-to-skin contact.
School officials say they have notified parents about the recent cases and they are taking extra precautions.
The past two days, officials have disinfected the school’s weight room and boy’s locker room.
“They started telling us to clean out our lockers, so we cleaned out our lockers and they sanitized it…and tonight we had to clean out our lockers again and they are going to sanitize one more time,” said Collin Richards, a senior football player at Traverse City West.
The Grand Traverse County Health Department does not consider this a MRSA outbreak, and students say they are not too worried about catching the infection.
“It’s not that big of a deal as long as you keep washing and try to stay hygienic,” Scheuerman said.
The TCAPS nursing department is on standby to examine any student who suspects they may have MRSA.
However, at this time, school officials are not anticipating a major breakout.
