Private school involved in Allegheny County’s second measles case

A child who attends a private Christian school in North Hills has been infected with measles, the second confirmed case in Allegheny County.

Pennsylvania is facing the nation’s largest measles outbreak, with more than 1,000 cases and five deaths across the Commonwealth. The first case of measles in an Allegheny County resident was identified last week, with possible exposures at a Target on McKnight Road in McCandless. The Allegheny County Health Department previously reported that measles cases did not include school exposure.

A department spokesperson confirmed that a second case of measles had been reported and that the agency was working with officials at the student’s school to contain the spread. The ministry declined to provide details about the second infected person, citing confidentiality.

A spokesperson for Eden Christian Academy, which operates three North Hills campuses, acknowledged that its student body has been affected. Eden Christian enrolls 658 students in elementary schools in Ross and Pine and an upper-level school in Ohio Township. The spokesperson did not specify which campus was affected.

Department of Health spokesperson Ronnie Das said staff “provided specific guidance to the school nurse and administration of an affected school on how to organize lists of immunized staff and students and ensure school staff understand who needs to be quarantined and for how long.”

Eden Christian Academy released a statement to Public Source on Thursday regarding the school’s response, saying the school could not release any identifying information due to privacy laws. “We are working directly with the Ministry of Health to implement their protocol,” the official said. “Families and staff have received notification with instructions from public health authorities.”

The school’s vaccination rate is 81%, which is in the bottom 10% of Allegheny County schools. It is below the 92-95% threshold required for herd immunity and below the Health Ministry’s target of at least 95%. The school did not respond to a question about whether it was doing anything to try to increase its vaccination rates.

“The health, safety and well-being of our students, faculty, staff and families are our top priority,” the school said in its statement.

In June, Public Source reported that private religious schools generally had the lowest measles vaccination rates in the county, with children in the youngest grades showing the lowest rates. At the time, county health experts said they were not aware of any specific efforts to improve vaccination rates in parish schools.

“We are very concerned that there are these pockets” of at-risk students, Allegheny County Medical Director Jillian Irwin said in May.

The Health Department said in a statement today that it is working with school officials to review attendance records to see which students may have been exposed, because infected people can spread the disease for four days before and after symptoms appear. The department recommends quarantining students and family members who have been exposed to measles and have not been previously vaccinated or infected. The department recommends isolation of students with confirmed cases.

“Anyone with measles should isolate themselves from others during this period,” Das said. “Non-immune household members should be quarantined. Immune household members should not be quarantined.”

Lisa Bruce was attending a conference Thursday on children with special needs at a church that is physically connected — although not affiliated — with the Eden Christian Academy building in Pine. She has an 18-year-old in college about an hour outside Pittsburgh, she said, so she’s not worried about her daughter. But she has two parents who are in their 80s and doesn’t know if their old vaccines will be as effective at their age. (The CDC website says people born before 1957 are presumed immune.)

“It worries me that people are not getting vaccinated,” Bruce said. “Being vaccinated is a choice. »

Correction: The original version of this story stated an incorrect number of measles cases statewide.

Oliver Morrison is the health and environment reporter at Public Source in Pittsburgh and can be reached at oliver@publicsource.org.

Lajja Mistry is a K-12 education reporter at Public Source in Pittsburgh. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org.

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