Read The Daily's coverage of this issue: Recent Staph case in dorm no cause for alarm

A student in the dorms recently learned she had the staph infection CA-MRSA — a type of staph that enters the body through the drainage of sores and causes large boils to form on the skin. It’s contagious through open sores.

OU’s Housing and Food policy allowed university officials only to strongly suggest the student move to a different room until the staph infection was gone. Privacy policies also prohibited Housing and Food officials from informing anyone — including the young woman’s suitemates — that she had the infection. We think these policies need reform.

The student with the infection declined the offer to move, and fear of acquiring the infection drove her roommates to shower and use the bathroom in other places until antibiotics treated the CA-MRSA. See Page 1 for details.

Students with such an infection should either be required to change rooms until the infections is gone, or Housing and Food officials should be required to tell the students’ roommates the student has the infection. Privacy policies are great, but not when other students are at risk of acquiring a potentially dangerous infection because they share a bathroom with someone who has it. They deserve to be informed.

There might be a slight level of embarrassment that comes with having an infection all of your peers know about. But it’s far better for a student to endure slight embarrassment than it is for others to endure a potentially life-threatening disease.

One of these two solutions should be required, and the person with the infection should have the choice of either moving, or making sure his or her roommates are informed about the extent of the infection and the dangers of sharing a room and bathroom.