By Jill Ricker
Friday, April 15, 2005
LYNN – Two students at the Harrington Elementary School have contracted hepatitis A, but they are no longer contagious, Superintendent of Schools Nicholas Kostan said Thursday.
“We had been notified that a couple of kids who lived in the same house were identified as being diagnosed with hepatitis A,” he said. “By the time we were notified, the contagious period had closed. We got the state Department of Public Health involved. Right away we called them and we really have to follow their lead – we’re just educators, they’re the experts.”
Hepatitis A is a virus that makes your liver swell and stops it from fighting infections, stopping bleeding and removing drugs and other poisons from the blood. It is diagnosed by a blood test.
The virus is found primarily in feces and is spread when contaminated hands, food, or water reach the mouth and the virus is swallowed. Symptoms of the virus are described as flu-like and the virus usually goes away on its own after a few weeks.

According to a letter sent home Wednesday to parents whose children share a class with the infected students, the DPH did not require that the school take any action.
“Due to the fact that the exposure period had past and there were no other reported cases, it was the state’s recommendation that no further notification, testing or treatment was necessary,” city health agent MaryAnn O’Connor wrote. “The state did recommend, however, that we reinforce the importance of good hand-washing techniques with the classroom staff.”
O’Connor did not return a phone message left at her office Thursday afternoon.
Kostan said parents should not be alarmed.
“The kids are under the treatment of a physician who has cleared them,” he said.
A parent of a first-grader at the school, who asked not to be identified, said she is upset that she was not notified of the situation, even though her child does not share a classroom with either of the infected students.
“I called the nurse and she said, ‘Well, it’s contained,'” she said. “I asked, ‘Did you close the school and sanitize,’ and she said there was no need for that. They don’t want to do anything about it. It scared me.”
The parent said a letter should have been sent home to all parents.
“I’m mad that the principal is trying to keep it quiet and not send a letter home,” she said. “My kid, I’m going to get her a shot anyways, but I don’t even think the principal should stay there. She supposedly told the teachers, if the parents ask you, don’t lie, just tell them. I don’t think it was right.”
Harrington Principal Joanne Roy could not be reached for comment, but Kostan said the city was not required to send a letter home to parents.
“The state Department of Health said there was no need to do that,” he said.
Despite the city’s assertions that they notified the state DPH, state DPH spokesperson Donna Rheaume said that the city has not reported any cases of hepatitis A recently.
“We have not had any cases of hepatitis A, like you are describing, reported to DPH that we are aware of,” she said.
Massachusetts law requires communities to report such cases no later than 24 hours after the local board of health has been notified.