Chicken Pox Outbreak Occurs at Bryn Mawr School, Officials Say

Chicken pox has been diagnosed in five infants at the Cambridge School at , Montgomery County Health Department officials said Tuesday.

“We don’t know the onset of it. We found out about it [Monday] and started getting information about it today,” health department spokeswoman Harriet Morton said of the outbreak.

Eleven other infants have since been kept home from the school because they were in contact with the five infants who have been diagnosed, Morton said. The typical quarantine period is 21 days, she added.

The chicken pox has been limited to one classroom at the school, said Cambridge Schools CEO Carol Rabe. Those children were too young to receive the vaccinations against the illness, which are typically administered between 12 and 15 months of age, Morton said.

Children had chicken pox at different times over the past several weeks, Rabe said.

“Chicken pox is an airborne illness, so you don’t contain it by sanitizing the environment, which we do all the time,” Rabe said.

Pediatricians are required to report chicken pox cases to the health department, which has established a protocol for the school to follow to protect other children from being exposed, Rabe said.

Children who are currently attending the school are not at risk, Rabe said.

At this point, the outbreak is contained to the Cambridge School at Baldwin, Morton said. Health officials are contacting family members of the diagnosed infants to determine the vaccination status of other family members.

The health department is continuing to investigate, Morton added.