Thanks to quick action by the city of Portland, parents and the state got the information they needed to address a MRSA skin infection diagnosed in two children at a city day camp. But while this incident has been contained, it should be a wake-up call about how to recognize and prevent this potentially serious infection.

MRSA — which stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — is a staph bacterium that’s resistant to certain antibiotics and appears as a bump or infected area that may be red, swollen, painful or full of pus. It can be spread by shaking hands, wrestling or other direct skin-to-skin contact with someone who has MRSA, or by sharing things that person has touched, such as razors or towels.

Magnified by 20,000X, this colorized scanning electron micrograph depicts a grouping of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria. Public Health Image Library photo

Though the Portland children attended a K-4 recreation camp at Riverton Community Center, it’s not known where they contracted MRSA. Nonetheless, following the diagnosis earlier this week, city staff went above and beyond state disease notification requirements. The MRSA skin infection was reported to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, though this is not required under Maine law, and parents were informed in a letter sent home with students. Custodians spent Monday and Tuesday cleaning the community center overnight and while students were away on field trips. There seems to be little cause for concern, former Maine CDC director Dr. Dora Anne Mills told the Portland Press Herald, adding, “I would still send my kids” to the camp.

If this sounds like overkill, it’s not. As long as they’re correctly diagnosed and treated, young and otherwise healthy people likely won’t experience long-lasting health problems from a MRSA skin infection. But as national public health advocate Bill Marler said in a Press Herald interview: “If you’re on the high school wrestling team, and you get MRSA, you can bring it home to Grandma,” putting her or other older or immunocompromised people at risk of a life-threatening MRSA infection in the bloodstream or lungs.

It’s also critical to recognize that although most MRSA diagnoses still occur among already-hospitalized people, an increasing number of infections are picked up in the community, in places like schools, offices or gyms that are either crowded or unsanitary or both. That’s why the easiest and most effective preventive steps all have to do with minimizing contact with germs: Wash your hands. Use clean towels. Cover open wounds or cuts.

MRSA has moved out of hospitals and into our communities. There’s no reason for public alarm, but there’s every reason for public attention.

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