It might be one good reason, though the infections are widespread enough that home educated children are also at risk; just not as exposed as when they mingle in public schools.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
6 staph cases confirmed
Athletes at East Forsyth found to have drug-resistant infections
By Laura Giovanelli
JOURNAL REPORTER
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Athletes, particularly those who participate in sports that require close contact such as wrestling, are more likely to catch staph infections.
People who have uncovered cuts or scrapes, poor hygiene and live in crowded conditions are also more susceptible, according to the CDC.
It is generally hard to find statistics about MRSA. The infection that it causes is a communicable disease but it is not a disease that local health departments are required to keep numbers on and report to the state.
North Carolina hospitals aren’t required to disclose their infection rates, although that will soon change. A law passed this year sets up an advisory commission that will help prepare hospitals and other facilities to collect and make infection rates public.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week was one of the first to show how widespread the fierce bacterium has become. Researchers took samples from people who visited 11 emergency rooms for a skin or tissue infection. Their work showed that MRSA was the cause 59 percent of the time.
It’s more than a good reason, it’s an excellent reason.
Nobody ever said that homeschool kids weren’t at risk of catching this, but they are far, far less at risk than public school kids. Simply not being in the crowded, unsanitary conditions that exist at schools where they’re touching EVERYTHING that everyone else is makes a huge difference.
You can’t blow off this one as being insignificant.