Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Attention whore claims she has MRSA; store destroys merchandise

Cyborg Ninja · 11-10-2007, 06:37 PM

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...i_tab01_layout

If the attention whore involved and the management aren't fired, then I don't know what the world is coming to.

Body of article for the non link clickers:

Quote:

An employee's remark about a potential staph infection – which caused an Indiana clothing store to close its doors and ultimately destroy merchandise worth hundreds of thousands of dollars – has turned out to be nothing more than a staff rumor gone wrong.

On Nov. 3, an employee of the Liz Claiborne outlet store at Michigan City's Lighthouse Outlet Mall told a co-worker she was infected with methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, a drug-resistant germ also referred to as MRSA.

Managers immediately closed the store, which was subsequently tested and cleaned, while the company tried to confirm the employee's infection. The tests came back negative on Thursday, said company spokeswoman Jane Randel.

Likewise, tests of the store revealed no traces of the bacteria, Randel said.

Doctors have cleared the unidentified employee to return to work.

"We have nothing that leads us to think that anyone's safety has been jeopardized," said Joanne Hardacker, nursing supervisor for the LaPorte County Health Department. The employee in question, who was never hospitalized, probably had some other minor skin infection, she said.

Staph bacteria -- which exist without incident on almost 30 percent of humans -- must be spread through direct or shared-surface contact, Hardacker said. Transmission is prevented by covering infected skin with clothing or by washing one's hands.

Still, they elected to do an extensive cleaning as a precaution -- and to assuage nervous customers.

"We were overly cautious, because we would really never want anyone to be endangered," Randel said. "We care very deeply about our consumers and want to make sure people feel comfortable going to the store."

It was lingering odors from powerful cleaning agents, not some unidentified infection, that rendered much of the store's merchandise unusable for sale, Randel said.

The store, one of 76 that the New York City-based retailer operates throughout the U.S., is presently restocking, and is expected to reopen its doors next week.

The woman, Randel added, was still employed as of Friday afternoon.