PINEVILLE, W.Va. — Wyoming County Schools are back to a normal schedule after an outbreak of staph infections last week caused major disruptions.
The infections were noticed at Wyoming East High School, Westside High School, and Mullens Elementary-Middle School. Those three schools were closed down for the rest of the week to allow professional cleaning by Serve-Pro. The rest of the county’s schools were closed for a day to allow staff to do a deep cleaning like the wipe downs which were done during the Covid era.
Interim Superintendent Deirdre Cline says they believe they got it.
“So far so good. Our school nurses, teachers, and staff are remaining diligent and vigilant about reporting of any concerns they may have. So far we are in good stead and we hope that remains the case,” Cline told Metronews.
The Wyoming County Health Department confirmed the staph infections last week and acknowledged MRSA was among the infections. However, the health department did not offer any conclusions about how the infections were spread or where they may have originated. Cline said they have theories which they have been working on to try and keep it from happening again.
“Anecdotally, we believe it may have had something to do with communal places like weight rooms, dressing rooms, and the football field. Those kinds of things and overlap with siblings and midget league football using the field, but that is absolutely not confirmed,” she explained.
Cline said they came up with the theory as they were trying to look at themselves and see how to be more proactive in their mitigation.
According to Cline every child who had an infection received medical attention and to her knowledge all of the students are back to school.