PORT TOWNSEND – Port Townsend High School was back to normal Monday after one of its students was diagnosed last week with a potentially life-threatening staph infection that is stubborn to treat.
But an elementary school preschool was closed Monday for disinfection after an unidentified adult connected with the preschool contracted the infection commonly known by the abbreviation MRSA.
Also Monday, the Jefferson County Recreation Center, located in the basement of the Port Townsend Community Center at 620 Tyler St. in uptown Port Townsend, was closed on Monday to be disinfected – although no cases of MRSA linked to the center were reported.
The recreation center will be open as usual today, although the preschool at Grant Street Elementary School, 1637 Grant St., remains closed until Thursday.
The closures and cautionary disinfecting with a bleach solution followed two confirmed MRSA cases last week.
The precautions at the high school were triggered when a senior football player contracted the infection, methicilliin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, abbreviated to MRSA and pronounced MUR-sah.
The strain is unusually resistant to antibiotics, including penicillin.
