Students outside Indian Hills Elementary School on Tuesday morning.
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“For parents, they need to make a decision for their children but we’re not recommending any precautions”, said Duchon. Some parents did not send their children to school on Tuesday, though it is considered that healthy people are normally not vulnerable to leprosy, and the initial stages of the disease are easy to treat. Despite the terrifying images (and history) that leprosy conjures, the information conveyed by the school district is, in fact, correct.
Jurupa Superintendent Elliott Duchon said that the district sent the letter to prevent rumors from gaining steam.
According to the CDC, leprosy is “very rare and easily treated”.
County health officials have scheduled a meeting after school Wednesday and will also be interviewing the parents to see if they have traveled to less-developed countries where leprosy is more prevalent.
The feared and misunderstood disease has even caused panic in the United States.
Despite the treatable nature of the rare disease-antibiotics that can effectively combat the condition once thought of as a biblical scourge have been around for decades-stigma around leprosy continues to linger. But national health officials downplay the effects of the disease in modern-day society, saying it’s not very contagious and is high treatable.
Nursing staff at Indian Hills Elementary School in Jurupa Valley notified county officials Friday of the suspected infections, which will take several weeks to officially confirm, said Barbara Cole, director for disease control for the Riverside County Department of Public Health.
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It was unclear whether the students are related to each other.
