Hepatitis A hits classroom; teacher, kids immunized

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Friday, April 27, 2001 | 11:05 a.m.

Three children from the same Clark County elementary school classroom have tested positive for hepatitis A, and nearly all of the students in that classroom as well as the teacher have been immunized, health officials confirmed Thursday.

Not all parents granted permission for their children to be immunized, health officials said.

The children who tested positive experienced flu-like symptoms and have since fully recovered, said Suzann Chesebrough, public health nursing supervisor for the county's immunization program.

Officials with the county health district and school district declined to say Thursday at which public elementary school the incident occurred, claiming it would unnecessarily alarm people.

"If there's a public health threat we notify the public," said Jennifer Sizemore, spokeswoman for the Clark County Health District. "In this case, we notified the parents at the school, which is all that was really needed."

The three children each tested positive a month apart. After the third case was discovered in March, health district officials decided to step in, Chesebrough said. Nearly all of the children in the class were given the hepatitis A vaccination during the first week in April, Chesebrough said.

Hepatitis A is an infectious disease that attacks the liver. The A strain of the virus is commonly transmitted through contact with infected food or feces.

"The problem is, kids of this age don't practice good hand-washing," Chesebrough said. "That can make them a reservoir for the virus."

It's unusual for three cases of hepatitis A to strike an elementary school classroom in such rapid succession, said county health district epidemiologist Rose Lee Bell. The outbreaks are more common at day care centers, where children are still in diapers, Bell said.

The incidents underscore the importance of immunizations, said Kim Rakow, an administrator for the Clark County School District's Health Services. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta ranked Nevada 34th in the nation for immunizations against childhood diseases. While that's a step up from Nevada's 48th place ranking a few years ago, there is still a long way to go, Rakow said.

A proposed change to the state's administrative code would require schoolchildren to be vaccinated against hepatitis A, a move that county health workers and school officials said they support.

"When your liver is infected your whole body is compromised," Rakow said. "It seems senseless to let our children be exposed to that when there's an immunization readily available."