Five cases of chicken pox have been confirmed throughout the Rockwood School District with four cases at LHS and one at the pre-school level.  

Chicken pox is a respiratory illness that can be spread by someone coughing or sneezing. The illness tends to start with a cough or sore throat and proceeds with a rash. The rash tends to start on the back or stomach and work it’s way to the limbs.

Supervisor of Wellness and Health Services for the district, Amy Wehr said, “Chicken pox is a highly contagious respiratory illness. It is typically more annoying than life-threatening, but the older one is, typically the more severe the disease is.”

Wher recommends students, “check with your doctor about receiving the vaccine if you’ve never had the disease, and as always, practice good respiratory etiquette and wash hands frequently.”

Channel 5 news referred to three cases of chicken pox as an “outbreak”. Wher said, “The County Health Department defines an ‘outbreak’ as more than one case of a vaccine preventable disease with a common link (LHS would be the link in this scenario).”