Lake Park student successfully treated for staph infection

Lake Park High School District 108 officials say a student who was infected with MRSA has been successfully treated and no other cases have been reported.

Officials at Lake Park West Campus in Roselle verified one case late last week after a student casually told a teacher that he had been infected with MRSA -- methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It's a strain of bacteria that can be found in the nasal passages, skin or bodily secretions.

"By the time we became aware of it he was cleared to come back," Lake Park spokeswoman Jennifer Jones Wilk said.

A letter about the case was sent to parents last week. Prior to learning of it, Lake Park already had implemented a cleaning plan suggested by the DuPage County Health Department, partially due to the MRSA issues at other schools.

Among other things, it added hand sanitizers throughout its buildings and carefully cleaned areas where infection may spread such as locker rooms, restrooms, door knobs, cabinet handles and drinking fountains.

Most of the time these bacteria do not cause a problem. But some staph infections such as MRSA are hard to treat because the bacterium has become resistant to antibiotics.

Neither school districts nor health departments are required to track individual cases, so it's unknown how many exist in the suburbs.

In the Chicago suburban area, multiple schools have reported outbreaks this month of MRSA. A parochial school in Aurora was closed earlier this month and cases were reported at schools in Naperville, Rolling Meadows, Gurnee, Huntley, Streamwood, Schiller Park, Bellwood, Woodstock and Joliet Township.