A Brooklyn boy has died after becoming infected with an antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection, health officials reported yesterday.

The 12-year-old middle school student died October 14, officials said. A lab test on October 22 confirmed he had been infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The student at I.S. 211 in Canarsie had been absent from school for a week before his death. In the face of public health concerns, the city’s health department said there is “no reason to believe that other children or school employees are at risk of Staph infection.” Health officials stressed that a fatal infection for a healthy child was highly unusual.

While health officials estimated that thousands of individuals become infected with MRSA each year, the “superbug” has made headlines in recent weeks following the death of a 17-year-old student in Virginia. In the tri-state area, a number of students on Long Island and in New Jersey have been infected.

“We’ve been looking at these for a long time, and actually predicting there would be a problem in schools,” the chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, Betsy McCaughey, said.

“This is not new,” she said. “Although it does appear to be occurring with increasing frequency,” most likely because “it is also being more accurately diagnosed.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 94,000 individuals became infected with MRSA last year, according to a study published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In about 18,000 individuals, the infection is fatal. “Fortunately there are concrete and very effective steps parents and teachers can take to prevent students from these community acquired MRSA infections,” Ms. MsCaughey said. In particular, students should maintain hand cleanliness, she said.