School officials are calling for heightened awareness after a Suttons Bay student was diagnosed with an antibotic-resistant strain of a staph infection - the same that claimed the life of a Virginia high school senior last week.

“The student has been medically treated with antibiotics and the infection is significantly better,” Superintendent Mike Murray said of the student, who is not an athlete and was not identified. “The student was not in school from the time the infection was discovered to the time they were medically cleared to return to school.”

Health department officials said Tuesday they have had no other cases of the staph infection reported in Leelanau, Benzie or Grand Traverse counties. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there.

“It’s not a ‘reportable’ illness,” said Dr. Michael Collins, who serves as the medical director for both the Benzie-Leelanau and Grand Traverse county health departments.

Illnesses such as venereal diseases are considered reportable communicable diseases that require local health officials to be informed. But MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) wouldn’t be reported to the department until at least three cases within a community had been confirmed.

“To my knowledge this is the only diagnosed case in the area,” said Bill Crawford, director of the Benzie-Leelanau County Health Department. “It’s important to know that most people heal up and to prevent panic.”

Murray, the Suttons Bay superintendent, issued a letter to parents Friday to alert them about the diagnosis and let them know how the district was responding. School officials became aware at the end of the 2006-07 school year of the growing number of incidents of the infection nationally, and took precautions.

“Some of these include coaches education with MRSA, (and) spraying all hard surfaces in the gym and locker room each day with a disinfectant designed to kill MRSA,” Murray said. “We also discussed with each athletic team the importance of good hygiene and skin care.”

There are two different strains of the infection: a community strain such as the case of the Suttons Bay student, and another associated with the health care industry. The latter is the more serious of the two.

“It infects sicker people or the immune compromised and the consequences are much worse,” Collins said.

County school administrators have generally responded with a call for more stringent cleaning routine, and a distribution of information to staff and students.

“We’ll probably have a crew come in and disinfect those areas where the bacteria is most often spread,” Leland Principal Terry Breen said. “We don’t want kids with uncovered wounds or walking around in their bare feet.”

Northport Superintendent/Principal Tyrus Wessell received information Tuesday from board Trustee Lois Counterman, a nurse, and prepared a letter to parents that day.

“We’ve talked with staff and custodians,” Wessell said. “We haven’t panicked.”

Neither has Glen Lake Superintendent Joan Groening.

“Suttons Bay appears to be an isolated case and the health department hasn’t responded strongly,” she said. “If we start sending out letters for isolated cases it will add to hysteria.”

Groening said she’s been in contact with Glen Lake’s two building principals who are monitoring the situation. Also food service staff has a heighten sense of the importance of cleanliness.

“It’s not to say we wouldn’t send a letter out (to parents), but at this particular time, we are not,” she said.

Risk factors for MRSA include skin-to-skin contact, touching contaminated items and surfaces, openings in the skin like cuts or abrasions, and medical devices like a catheter or port for direct medicine infusion.

A Michigan Department of Community Health web site states the staph infection is sometimes mistaken for a “spider bite.” Symptoms may range from minor to serious, including skin redness and swelling, “pimple-like” red bumps, boils, rash, fever and headache.

To prevent the spread of bacteria the department suggests keeping wounds clean and bandaged until healed; keeping hands and skin clean; avoid sharing personal items, like towels, washcloths, bar soap and razors; and cleaning and disinfecting high-tough surfaces, shared items and equipment.