Anti-vaxxer kids urged to stay home from Nebraska school after teacher contracts rare ‘rapid-moving infection’
- A teacher at Pre-K & Play Academy, in Omaha, Nebraska, was hospitalized with a rare infection
- Initially, she was diagnosed with epiglottitis, a life-threatening condition that occurs when the tissue protecting the windpipe becomes inflamed
- However, health officials said the illness was actually caused by something else – which wasn’t identified – and that the teacher is ‘not a public health concern’
- Parents with unvaccinated children are advised to keep them home until daycare workers finish disinfecting the facility
- A letter to parents said the sick worker had been vaccinated against Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib), a bacterium known to cause epiglottitis
Anti-vaxxer parents in Nebraska are being urged to keep their children home from a daycare after an employee was hospitalized with a rare infection.
Pre-K & Play Academy, in Omaha, sent the letter home saying one of the staff members had contracted a ‘very rapid-moving infection’, reported 6 News.
Initially, she was diagnosed with epiglottitis, a life-threatening condition that occurs when the tissue protecting the windpipe becomes inflamed.
The name of the infection was even posted on the door, but the Douglas County Health Department (DCHD) says she is actually sick with another illness.
A letter sent home to parents stated the ill teacher had been immunized against Haemophilus influenza type b, better known as Hib, a bacterium known to cause epiglottitis.
Parents with unvaccinated children are advised to keep them home after a teacher at Pre-K & Play Academy, in Omaha, Nebraska (pictured), was hospitalized with a rare infection
According to a letter sent to parents, obtained by 6 News, the daycare said that ‘[the worker] is currently in the hospital under sedation and has been intubated.’
Phil Rooney, a spokesman for the DCHD, told DailyMail.com that the department cannot reveal for privacy reasons the illness that she does have but that it is ‘not a public health concern’.
‘The children are not in any danger; we’re not worried about that,’ he said.
Jami Flynn, the owner of Pre-K & Play Academy, said that although it turned out that the teacher didn’t have epiglottitis, she wanted to make sure she was being honest with parents.
‘Err on the side of caution,’ she told 6 News. ‘Make sure – especially when you’re dealing with little kids – that you’re doing everything you can to keep them safe. That’s the most important thing.’
Staff members had originally considered closing the daycare to thoroughly disinfect the building, but opted not to.
‘[A]fter careful consideration, we have decided this would cause a tremendous hardship on our families and are not going to do so,’ the letter read.
The staffer is expected to recover, but county health officials would not say what might have caused the teacher to be hospitalized.
‘We will be taking time today and over the next few days to deep clean as much as we can while still caring for the children,’ the letter continued.
‘Every surface will be disinfected and run through a washing machine or sanitizer when possible.’
According to the letter, the sick teacher had been vaccinated against Hib disease, which is known to cause epiglottitis.
Families with unvaccinated children were told to keep their children home or to arrange for temporary care until the threat of infection has passed.
Around 20,000 US children under age five were infected with Hib disease each year before the vaccine became available in the 1980s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The agency added that cases of Hib disease since then have plummeted by more than 99 percent.
The news comes as three bills hope to limit the number of vaccine exemptions after a measles outbreak has sickened more than 60 in the Pacific Northwest.
Two of the bills are currently being presented in Washington state’s Congress, reported KGW 8.
One would would ban personal or philosophical exemptions for the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, and the other would ban personal or philosophical exemptions for all vaccines required for school.
A third, stricter bill has been presented in Oregon’s Congress. This bill would ban all non-medical exemptions for vaccine, including religious reasons.