School Community of Anti-Vaxxers Faces Worst Chickenpox Outbreak in Decades

The varicella virus, otherwise known as chickenpox, has infected 36 kids at the Asheville Waldorf School in North Carolina, according to officials. The school has one of the highest rates of religious exemption, which allows its students to skip vaccination.

Out of the 152 students the school hosts, 110 have not received the vaccine for chickenpox, the Citizen-Times found. And nearly 70 percent of the school’s kindergarten students had religious immunization exemptions for the 2017-2018 school year, according to state data.

Local health officials are monitoring the situation and reminding parents vaccination is the best protection against chickenpox.

"When we see high numbers of unimmunized children and adults, we know that an illness like chickenpox can spread easily throughout the community—into our playgrounds, grocery stores, and sports teams,” county medical director Jennifer Mullendore said in a statement.

“Chickenpox is a mild disease for many children, but not all. There’s no way to know who will have a serious case. When your child gets the chickenpox shots, he or she is getting immunity from chickenpox without the risk of serious complications of the disease,” the CDC says.

For many parents, the chickenpox vaccine is given to baby when he is between 2 months and 4 months old to avoid the disease altogether. Learn about other doctor-recommended vaccines your little one will need in the first year of his life.

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