San Diego County health officials say ten students at Oak Valley Middle School in Poway came down with chicken pox just before the summer break. Officials say they're warning parents that many more children could have been exposed. KPBS reporter Kenny Goldberg has the story.
All incoming kindergartners are required to be vaccinated against chicken pox. But that wasn't always the case. That means many school children and adults have no immunity to the disease.
Dr. Wilma Wooten is San Diego County's Public Health Officer. Wooten says chicken pox usually causes a rash and a mild fever. But she says some people become seriously ill.
Wooten : Hospitalization is a serious complication associated with chicken pox, and that can be due to secondary infection, or if the illness spreads to the central nervous system.
Chicken pox is highly infectious, and can be spread by coughing. It often takes two to three weeks for someone who's been exposed to the disease to become ill.
Kenny Goldberg, KPBS News.
