California School Shuts Down Due To Measles Symptoms Found In One Student

By R. Siva Kumar - 01 Apr '16 07:35AM

After officials of the Yuba River Charter School in Nevada County, California, learnt that an unvaccinated child with measles attended classes before the spring break, they ordered the school to be shut down.

The contagious nature of measles makes it spread easily through air or direct contact. Hence, the Nevada County Public Health Department felt that it was better to be safe than sorry and shut the school down. Though the child has recovered from the illness, he showed some symptoms when he came to school.

Nevada County records show that it is open to contracting measles. It also worryingly ranks among the lowest in terms of vaccination rates in California. Just 77 percent of kindergartners were found fully vaccinated by the start of the 2015-2016 academic year. The YRCS was found to have just 43 percent of kindergarteners fully vaccinated.

Although the school re-opened Wednesday, just students with sufficient documentation of immunity to measles will be permitted to attend classes.Students have been asked to show documents of at least one measles vaccination two weeks before March 17 (when the infected child had attended school and shown symptoms) or later, or with a blood test report showing IgG antibodies to measles.

Without these documents, a child will be barred from coming to school.

Students can return on April 8 once the Health Officer from the Nevada County Public Health Department gives the assurance that the survey of the outbreak of measles is over and no new cases have been observed. Meanwhile, they have been asked to remain quarantined.

Although measles had been declared eliminated in 2000, the illness has struck a few unvaccinated children leading to sudden outbreaks in recent years. Last year, two Disney theme parks in Southern California had infected children, who in turn transmitted it to 130 across the state.

The incident led to some laws being passed, making it difficult for parents to leave their children unvaccinated. In YRCS, the recent case has led to the implementation of the vaccination rule in the 2016-17 school year.