An Open Letter to Parents, Students, School Administrators, & Health Care Officials from Soa...( NEW YORK Nov. 8 /- re: MRSA S...),Health

NEW YORK, Nov. 8 /PRNewswire/ --

re: MRSA School Scare

Every day brings new reports of students becoming infected -- and in some cases dying -- of MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus), a potentially lethal form of staph infection that's easily acquired in public schools, universities and colleges. The most prominent symptoms include skin abscesses and/or infections.

While MRSA is more pervasive within health care facilities and attacks those with low immune systems, children and young adults in school and public environments are equally susceptible, as the bacterium is spread easily through skin-to-skin contact, open cuts, abrasions, and contact with contaminated surfaces.

On October 16, the US Center for Disease Control (CDC), reported 94,360 MRSA infections and 18,650 MRSA deaths in 2005, more than the number of AIDS- related deaths in the same year. Most experts expect that once tallied, MRSA- related statistics for 2006 and 2007 will prove to be considerably higher.

Even more disturbing, officials representing the CDC, the country's foremost source of information for best hand hygiene practices, have acknowledged that's it recommendations, first published in 1996 and specifically intended for health care institutions, have not been updated with regard to the use of rinse-free hand sanitizer products.

Although the CDC actually cautions against the use of alcohol-based products in particular situations, it remains steadfast by exclusively promoting alcohol-based sanitizers as the alternative to soap and water; all despite the fact that in recent years, equally effective and altogether safer, alcohol-free (non-flammable and non-toxic) hand sanitizer technologies have been developed and introduced to the market place.

Selective, and responsibly manufactured alcohol-free sanitizers have proven to be not only as efficient in killing MRSA and other common germs and viruses, but certain of these products r
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