Friday, October 19, 2007

Staph Fears Force Districts To Take Extra Precautions

Fear of a contagious skin infection called staph along with the drug resistant strain referred to as MRSA have caused anxiety in Texas schools, jails and hospitals. Staph is staphylococcus aureus bacteria. This bacterium is very common (many people have some living on their skin all the time), but when it enters the human body, usually through an open cut or break in the skin, it can cause infection and trouble anywhere in the body. Staph infections tend to be pus-producing. Common minor (or relatively minor) skin infections caused by staph is boils, abscesses and hair follicles. Staph can be easily passed from one individual to the next. Staph is transmitted by skin to skin contact or by sharing towel, soap or clothes. Sports teams tend to pass it to others in locker rooms and through sharing equipment. A local survey of the Dallas area had 60 confirmed cases and 27 confirmed cases on the drug resistant form. The rapid rise of cases has led to phone calls and letters to parents to warn them of the signs and confirmed cases. Current laws do not require the school to be informed if a child is infected. When a school is not properly informed the proper sanitary actions cannot be taken. This lack of communication allows the infection to be spread easier. Fear of this infection makes students not feel they are in a safe environment. When children are concerned for their safety they cannot properly focus to learn. To make the school environment safer the Texas Health Officials should require all sports equipment to be sanitized daily instead of weekly and should require sanitizing the locker and classrooms twice a day. While the increased cleaning staff will increase school’s budget it could lead to higher attendance with children missing less due to infection. The increased attendance will improve TAKS, SAT and ACT scores because the children will feel safer in their environment and more open to learn.


Link to article: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/102007dnmetstaph.34bc3f8.html

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Reasoning for vetoing children's health insurance.

President Bush has only vetoed four things while holding office. His most recent bill vetoed would have added 4 million to the children's health insurance. Out of the United States 50 governors 43 urged the passing of the new bill while the seven other governors including Texas's own Rick Perry was not in favor of the bill. The Bipartisan bill addressed the growing number of uninsured children and protected the current insured children.
This bill being vetoed was just an open opportunity for the democratic side to use children to win votes. People claim that Bush, Perry, Cornyn, and McCaul hate children just because a children's insurance plan was denied. The President or an public officials are not children haters just because a 4 million dollar plan was denied. The media fails to mention or state the reasons for the denial. They only claim officials should not be reelected and are looking for any open opportunity to swing more majority in their way.
If one would have taken a look at both sides one could see Bush's side which clearly demonstrates the republican policy of hands off government. Bush wants poor kids to be put first, however, supports private medicine not the government running the health system. The money would have helped children who had to high of an income for Medicaid but did not want to invest in the private systems. This system would have encouraged citizens invested in the private health system to switch to the federal system. This is clearly an act of the democrats to try to have more government control over the citizens.
This bill shows how America is divided on the methods of which the country should be run. It also demonstrates how we are all free to share and express our view s and opinoins which is something we should all be greatful for.

http://www.burntorangereport.com/frontPage.do for article Bush, Perry, Coryn and McCaul Hate Children