Measles case: Unvaccinated students barred from H.B. High till Jan. 29

Students at Huntington Beach High School who have not been vaccinated for measles are being kept out of school until Jan. 29 after a student tested positive for the contagious virus, the Orange County Health Care Agency said Monday.

The male student attended school Jan. 6 to 8 while he was infectious, health officials said.

“The infectious period for measles is up to 21 days, so students who are not vaccinated must remain at home and monitor for symptoms of measles until the infectious period has passed,” Deanne Thompson, spokeswoman for the Health Care Agency, said in an email.

Twenty students are being told to stay home, according to Pamela Kahn, coordinator of health and wellness for the Orange County Department of Education. She said students can remain in school by showing a record of vaccination or through a blood test that shows they’ve built immunity to the disease.

Fifty-one cases of measles have been confirmed in recent weeks across California, three other states and Mexico. Of the 45 confirmed cases in California, Orange County has been the hardest-hit area, with 16.

The outbreak began over the holidays at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure in Anaheim and is spreading as patients who contracted the disease at the theme parks expose others elsewhere, health officials said. Of the Orange County cases, 10 are believed related to the Disney parks. The Huntington Beach case is not.

Measles starts with a fever, runny nose, cough, red eyes and sore throat and is followed by a rash that spreads all over the body. The virus can be prevented with the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine, which is traditionally administered at age 1. A second dose is given when a child is 4 to 6 years old.

Officials have said that many of those who are ill were not vaccinated.

The Health Care Agency on Wednesday issued a notification for Orange County parents that children who have not received at least one vaccination shot and are exposed to the disease may be excluded from school to prevent measles from spreading further.

“Simply being in the same room with someone who has measles is enough to become infected,” the notification said. “Because measles is so contagious, it can spread rapidly once introduced and cause outbreaks, especially in schools or day cares where immunization rates are low.”

Thompson said Friday that two of the current patients had been fully vaccinated, showing that the vaccine is not always effective. “If you have been immunized, you might still develop measles, but you would become less sick than if you weren’t vaccinated at all,” she said.

A Los Angeles Times analysis published in September reported a rise in vaccine exemptions among kindergartners because of parents’ personal beliefs, most prominently in wealthy coastal communities such as south Orange County and the Santa Monica and Malibu areas. Some parents question whether vaccinations are safe; some are concerned that vaccinations could trigger autism. Health officials say those worries are unfounded.

If you think your child has measles, call your health-care provider and the Orange County Disease Control & Epidemiology Division at (714) 834-8180.

Look up your school’s kindergarten vaccination rate.

Look up your school’s 7th grade vaccination rate.

Staff writer Hannah Fry contributed to this report.