- A mysterious skin rash that popped up in a Manassas
middle
school last week has also been found at 13 other schools throughout the
county, plaguing more than 350 students and staff members.
-
- Superintendent Edward Kelly said the 28 new cases of
an itchy skin irritation in 13 county schools Thursday adds to the
frustration
of finding out what is causing the rashes at Marsteller Middle
School.
-
- About 161 Marsteller Middle School students experienced
rashes and fevers Thursday, bringing the total to 329 cases at the Manassas
school in the last two weeks.
-
- Despite the new cases, Kelly said all schools will be
open today.
-
- School and health officials believe the rashes at
Marsteller
Middle School may be the final stages of fifth disease, a mild illness
common in school outbreaks, after one student was diagnosed with the
disease
Tuesday.
-
- However, an experienced school nurse who has examined
more than 100 students with red, itchy skin on Thursday is saying no
way.
-
- "I have seen two rashes that resemble the fifth.
But in a bulk of the children, I don't see the fifth," said Debbie
Midkiff, a school nurse who has 21 years in the profession.
-
- The new cases at Marsteller Middle School came in
Thursday
morning, just like every morning at the school since Nov. 20. And by 1:30
p.m., the school's main office was flooded with parents coming in to pick
up their fevered and itching children.
-
- "I think they should close down, because they don't
know what it is. In these times of terrorism and anthrax, we just don't
know," said Angela Simmons, a parent who was picking up her
son.
-
- For the second time in two weeks, the school was closed
Wednesday after more than 100 students and staff members experienced skin
rashes and low-grade fevers Tuesday.
-
- One student was diagnosed with fifth disease Tuesday,
prompting school and health officials to order blood tests on affected
students and staff members to see if the disease was the culprit. The
blood-test
results were not available Thursday.
-
- Fifth disease is common in children who typically
experience
a sometimes itchy rash on the cheek, limbs and trunk. A low-grade fever,
malaise or cold symptoms may accompany the rash, according to the National
Center for Infectious Diseases.
-
- During a school outbreak, 60 percent of the school
population
may get the disease. The rash symptoms on a child are the last stage of
the disease and indicate that the contagious period is over, according
to center documentation. The disease is called fifth disease because it
is the fifth most common childhood rash.
-
- Kelly said that a teacher at Henderson Elementary in
Montclair was diagnosed with fifth disease last week. One student at that
school was sent home Thursday, complaining of a red, itchy skin
irritation.
-
- The news of rashes first appeared at Marsteller Middle
School on Nov. 20, when 30 students experienced the mysterious skin
irritation,
prompting environmental health and hazardous materials crews to inspect
the school for any substance that could be causing the rashes.
-
- Finding nothing after a series of surface and air tests,
health officials did not recommend closing the school. However, school
officials decided to close the school Nov. 21 so industrial hygienists
could conduct further tests for mold and dust mites.
-
- Those tests also found nothing in the school's
environment
that could be causing the outbreak.
-
- One student at Bennett Elementary, located near Manassas,
went home early Wednesday after experiencing a rash. On Thursday, three
more students were sent home.
-
- Principal Graham Spencer said he spoke with a doctor
who examined one of the students: "The doctor said it wasn't what
is happening at Marsteller because the same doctor has seen kids at
Marsteller."
-
- "We are frustrated," said Kelly. "Some
doctors are saying it's viral, other are saying it's
environmental."
-
- One parent, who did not wish to give his name, was
picking
his son up from Marsteller Middle School on Thursday after his son
experienced
a skin rash for the second time in two weeks.
-
- "We took him to the doctor last week, and [the
doctor]
said he has the symptoms of something he inhaled," he said. The man
said his son had fifth disease when he was younger, making him immune to
the disease.
-
- Because the cause of the rash remains unknown, Simmons
said her son will not return to school. "They close the school and
then the kids come back and then it starts all over again," she said.
"All these rashes are caused by something." "I do think
it's weird and I have concerns, but it sounds like they're doing all they
can right now," said Kathy Dove, a parent who was picking her son
up from Marsteller on Thursday afternoon because of a fever and
rash.
-
- Dove said her son came down with a rash last week as
well, but is not too worried. "They aren't coming down with something
deadly," she said.
-
-
- Link
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- _____________
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-
- Virginia Middle School Rash Is A Medical
Puzzle
- By Christina A. Samuels and Leef Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
11-30-1
-
- Marsteller Middle School students are coming down with
a mysterious rash that still has medical officals looking for
answers.
-
- Three nurses sit in the Marsteller Middle School library,
taking the temperature of dozens of students complaining of a red, itchy
rash on their arms, legs, chests or backs. A steady trickle of parents
arrives at the Manassas school, picking up sick kids in the middle of the
day.
-
- In the last 10 days, one-third of the 940-member student
body has been ill, and the biggest number yet in one day - 161 - got sick
yesterday.
-
- And still, no one knows what's causing the illness, or
how to stop it. Viral syndromes, allergic reactions or contact dermatitis
from something in the air are all theories from the medical experts, said
Principal Karen Poindexter. But as health officials, doctors and school
staff members scour the information they have gathered, there's no evidence
yet that proves one theory over another.
-
- "There are answers the parents want, and we just
cannot give it to them," Poindexter said. "We don't have enough
information."
-
- School officials plan to open Marsteller today. Unlike
previous days, children were not sent home yesterday if they had a
temperature
under 100, though some parents chose to pick their children up anyway,
Poindexter said.
-
- "I think they're trying," said parent Sandy
Hedrick, who took her 14-year-old daughter, Katie, home early. "It's
been a week now, so you think they'd know what it is by now."
-
- Katie, an eighth-grader, said she can't figure it out
either.
-
- "I don't know. Some people are saying that people
put itching powder in the vents," she said. "There's a lot of
people talking in the halls."
-
- The outbreak, even with its mild symptoms, is occurring
at a time when parents are already on edge about possible environmental
dangers or contaminants.
-
- More serious illnesses were quickly ruled out, said
Superintendent
Edward L. Kelly. Something like anthrax, for instance, "has never
been considered, simply because you don't have any kind of anthrax symptoms
at all."
-
- The illness first appeared in about 40 students two days
before Thanksgiving, prompting the first unscheduled closure Nov. 21 while
school officials brought in a company to conduct environmental testing.
The school was cleaned, the tests came back negative, and the Health
Department
declared the school safe to reopen.
-
- However, on Monday, 20 more students came down with the
unexplained illness. On Tuesday, 114 students and four staff members got
sick. Administrators closed the school again Wednesday to allow additional
tests and, some hoped, to allow the outbreak to run its course.
-
- The halls, showers and lockers have been disinfected
by custodial workers. Air filters have been replaced. Health officials
have checked with janitors to see whether anything new is being used in
the cleaning supplies. Nothing suspicious has turned up. And although the
school was again declared fit to open, yesterday was the worst day so
far.
-
- A working theory in the early days of the outbreak was
that the rash and fever were caused by a mild childhood illness called
fifth disease, which starts with a low fever and produces a red rash, most
often on the cheeks. One child is known to have tested positive for the
illness.
-
- "I think we may have fifth disease, but we may have
something else" viral, said Jared Florance, Prince William County's
health director. "Or it could be an allergic reaction. We have one
kid with poison ivy. We just don't have the information to say what it
is or isn't."
-
- Prince William Health Department officials said they
have not called on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for help
in identifying the illness. Rather, Florance's office has asked the state's
regional epidemiology expert to help it sort through the clues.
-
- Health officials said it's not uncommon for viruses to
spread quickly among dense student populations. That's because viruses
such as fifth disease are so easily transmitted. Last winter, scarlet fever
spread across the Washington region in just two weeks in January, with
cases in 38 schools in Prince George's County alone.
-
- Marsteller, which is part of the Prince William school
system, was built in 1963. Earl Tester, environmental health supervisor
for the Prince William County health district, said his staff is evaluating
janitorial supplies and anything else that might have been a contact agent
for the rash.
-
- "We went through all of that," Tester said.
"Nothing had changed. No work was being done on the building or
equipment.
The chemicals, cleaners, polishes and washes are all the same that they've
used before."
-
- One twist is that the rash appears to flare up when
students
are actually in Marsteller, then subsides when they go home.
-
- Ariel Taylor, 13, an eighth-grader, had the rash on her
back Tuesday. On Thursday, it was on her arms, and she left school
early.
-
- "Most kids, they don't want to be touched by someone
else who has the rash because they're afraid they're going to get it,"
she said. "I just think it's kind of gross."
-
- Mary Schmidt, a pediatric and adult infectious disease
specialist at Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children, said that the problem
sounds viral but that she's not convinced that fifth disease is to
blame.
-
- That's because fifth disease is known for producing a
flat, lacy rash. What doctors are seeing on many of the Marsteller students
is a rash made up of little red bumps.
-
- Schmidt said the symptoms more closely resemble those
of an enterovirus, the second most common virus that infects humans, behind
rhinoviruses, which are the "common cold" viruses.
-
- "I look forward to seeing what they finally come
up with," Schmidt said. So does Terri Taylor, Ariel's mother.
-
- "The kids were out of school five days, and you
come back to school and they still have the problem," Taylor said.
"They really need to get to the bottom of this."
-
-
- © 2001 The Washington Post Company
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