Education

Schools Brace Themselves For Pennsylvania’s New Epidemic. But Is It Actually Impacting Kids?

[Flickr/Asian Development Bank, CC BY 2.0]

As measles cases surge across Pennsylvania, schools are reportedly developing “response plans” involving vaccination and isolation — even as reports indicate the current outbreak is not affecting children as severely as previous ones.

As the swing state recorded 977 cases across 39 counties as of Friday, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, school districts across Western Pennsylvania are formulating measles-response plans, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Sunday. However, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) reported on Monday that 69 percent of all cases in Pennsylvania are adults — a near reversal of the national pattern of the disease in which 61 percent of cases involve children and teens.

Turkeyfoot Valley Area School District officials decided to put an action plan in place with Somerset County officially reporting 14 measles cases as of Sunday, according to the Post-Gazette.

“If a student gets sick with measles at school: the child will be isolated. Parents will be contacted and the district will follow CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidelines to disinfect that school,” the outlet described the plan.

If the infected child happens to be un-vaccinated or even “under-vaccinated,” the child must stay home and be excluded from school for at least 21 days, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Staff at the school must abide by the same regulation “if they are not able to provide proof of immunity,” Post-Gazette reported.

However, since the article’s publication on Sunday, the disease still has not been reported inside the District’s student body — meaning none of the 250 children from across five communities have fallen ill from the virus.

The DCNF reached out to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and several counties and districts in the area — including Somerset County and Turkeyfoot Valley Area School District — but did not receive comment in time for publication.

School districts across the region are “preparing for potential contact tracing if a case arises” and encouraging vaccination and proof of vaccination from staff, students, and parents, the article continued.

Despite this low level of infection rate, public health officials in school districts across Pennsylvania urge parents to vaccinate their children with the MMR vaccine against the disease, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported

In Indiana County, Pennsylvania, the Homer-Center School District sent out “measles-related communications” to families in the school and school nurses “had three families submit MMR vaccination records for their previously unvaccinated kids,” school Superintendent Ralph Cecere said, according to the outlet.

“We’re able to cross those students off of our list of unvaccinated,” Cecere said. “But really that’s a personal decision amongst families.”

As of Oct. 1, there are 3,887 total measles cases nationwide across 45 states and the District of Columbia as per the latest update on the CDC website. Factoring in the current U.S. population of 342.9 million, this means that overall, measles has affected 0.001 percent of the overall population since the start of the spread early this year.