Thirty children are infected with the chickenpox virus in one of the schools whose rate of exemption from the vaccine against this disease is one of the highest in the country. It’s the biggest outbreak in 20 years.
Thirty-six students from kindergarten through sixth grade at Asheville Waldorf School are infected with the varicella virus which is characterized by itchy rashes. Generally, this disease remains mild. However, US health authorities report that nearly 4 million Americans contract the infection each year, resulting in more than 10,000 hospital visits and 150 deaths.
110 out of 152 school children not vaccinated
Of Asheville Waldorf’s 152 school children, 110 were not vaccinated against chickenpox for religious reasons. However, this vaccine is recommended “in the interest of public health” by the government. “We want to be clear: vaccination is the best protection against chickenpox,” county medical director Dr. Jennifer Mullendore said in a press release. “Two doses of vaccine provide significant protection against chickenpox. When we see high numbers of unvaccinated children and adults, we know that a disease like chickenpox can easily spread through the community in our grounds. games, our groceries and our sports teams.”
“It’s not just about you”
This potential spread of the virus worries health authorities. The latter qualify as “hot spots” areas where parents refuse to vaccinate their children for religious reasons. These hot spots are all breeding grounds for infections and potential spreads of this disease. A particularly worrying phenomenon given that the rate of unvaccinated American children has quadrupled in less than two decades.
“It’s not just about you,” Susan Sullivan, a nurse with the state Department of Health and Human Services, told local Kare11 television, addressing the community. “It’s about the people you interact with: pregnant women, people with AIDS, people completing chemotherapy. They are also part of our community and we must do everything in our power to protect everything the world.”
A danger to public health
As a reminder, the chickenpox vaccine protects children from this common disease and its possible complications such as bacterial skin infections. However, in 5 to 10% of healthy children, chickenpox can lead to more serious problems such as pneumonia, encephalitis or blood infections.
Even though the painful rash seems like a childhood rite of passage, the virus can also have serious consequences for adults, including bacterial infections of the skin and bloodstream, pneumonia, and a brain infection called encephalitis. Health officials have called on the community to do their part in prevention to stop the outbreak from spreading.
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