Schools

Hawk Comes Down with Chickenpox

Hillgrove High Principal Robert Shaw warns that a student has been diagnosed with the disease.

By Robert Shaw
Hillgrove Principal

Dear Parents,

I would like to make you aware that a Hillgrove student has been diagnosed with chickenpox. Chickenpox is contagious and may spread rapidly to people who have never had the disease or have not been vaccinated.

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Five to ten percent of children who have been vaccinated will develop breakthrough chickenpox after exposure. Chickenpox in newborns, adults, and those with weakened immune systems (cancer patients, for example) may be severe. 

A virus causes chickenpox and it presents as a mild fever, tiredness, and skin eruptions (lesions). These eruptions begin under the skin and fill with fluid within a few hours. They usually cause itching, last a few days, and then begin to crust over. The lesions appear on any part of the body and new lesions erupt as old lesions crust over.

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Chickenpox is spread from person to person by direct contact with the fluid from the lesions or in the air by droplets from the sick person’s throat or mouth. Items that have been soiled with the infected fluid, such as towels, can also spread it.

It takes 13 to 17 days to show symptoms of chickenpox after exposure to an infected person. Chickenpox can spread starting five days before the first lesions appear. 

A person is not usually contagious once all the lesions are crusted over, and students are allowed to return to school when every lesion is crusted, normally about seven days.

Please read all over-the-counter medication labels. Aspirin or medicines containing aspirin or salicylates can cause a very serious illness called Reyes Syndrome, and should not been given to children with chickenpox. 

Pregnant women who have been exposed and have not had chickenpox should call their obstetrician. Please contact your health care provider or our school nurse if you have further questions.


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