Measles Case Prompts Notifications at High School

More than 200 students and staff have been notified that someone had measles during a test at Beverly High School in April.

Cathy Riccio, nurse leader for the Beverly Public Schools, said the schools were notified by the Department of Public Health last Wednesday afternoon that there was a confirmed case of measles at the school on Saturday, April 13 during the ACT test.

Measles is highly contagious and spreads easily through coughing and sneezing, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and in rare cases it can be deadly. It starts with a fever, cough and runny nose and before a rash of tiny, red spots breaks out on the head and spreads to the rest of the body, according to the CDC. There are typically less than 200 confirmed cases nationally each year.

Everyone who entered the building needed to be notified and they needed to get a proof of immunity. In the end, 21 high school staff, 95 high school students, 167 students not from Beverly High School and 61 students that were involved with athletics during the day and entered the building were notified and their immunizations were confirmed.

“The two high school nurses, Kim Pappas and Cathy Ober, did a fantastic job of notifying our Beverly and surrounding area students,” Riccio said.

Students are required to show immunization against measles before enrolling in school and cases are relatively rare. An outbreak of more than a dozen cases in Indiana last year drew headlines when some of the people who contracted measles attended the Super Bowl.

“We can get what is called ‘break through’ measles and this means that a person got their two doses of MMR but somehow they still contracted the disease,” Riccio said. “What is good however is the fact that the disease is much milder and more easily tolerated.”