Teachers at Albany Senior High School will have blood tests to check their immunity against Measles before they return to class. Photo / 123RF
Teachers at Albany Senior High School will have blood tests to check their immunity against Measles before they return to class. Photo / 123RF
Teachers from the school at the centre of a measles outbreak will have blood tests to check immunity so they can return to teach in person when the school goes back.
In a letter to parents Albany Senior High School principal Claire Amos said the school was doing all it could to stop the spread of the disease. The letter comes as a second case was confirmed in connection to the school.
Checking on staff immunity was a priority, Amos said, and Auckland Regional Public Health Service Te Whatu Ora was “organising blood tests if necessary”.
“Having enough staff who are immune and not in quarantine will be key to the school’s decision about whether to open on Monday,” Te Whata Ora said in a statement.
The 100 teachers and 900 students at Albany Senior High School are considered close contacts of a student who tested positive for Measles on Wednesday.
The student was in all five of the school’s open-plan modern learning environments while infectious.
The second case is a household member of the first case and is currently isolating at home. The confirmed case visited Chemist Warehouse Albany on April 20 from 2.45pm and 4.30pm.
“People who were present at the exposure event should check their measles immunity,” Te Whatu Ora said.
Last night, Te Whatu Ora confirmed the source of the infection was someone who travelled overseas recently.
It would be decided later today if some teachers and students from Albany Senior High School would return to onsite learning next week.
Amos said that was dependent on the number of students who were immunised and whether there was enough immunised teaching staff to take classes.
Around 80 per cent of students at Albany Senior High School are thought to be immunised against measles. Photo / 123rf
Students not considered immune have been told to isolate at home for seven days from Thursday.
Te Whatu Ora said it was “working quickly to match national immunisation records with everyone who was at school on the days the student was infectious”.
Early indications showed close to 80 per cent of students had either one or two doses of the MMR vaccine.
Parents spoken to by the Herald said they were impressed with the quick action the school had taken and that communication was full and open.
“When we were told there was a bit of panic and a scramble to check the Wellchild book to make sure my girl’s immunisations were up to date,” one parent said.
“I knew they were but when you hear there is an outbreak you’re always worried there may have been a booster you missed.”
All of the parents spoken to by the Herald said their children were immunised but some were concerned at record low immunisation rates and what that meant for schooling in the future.
Auckland-based Māori paediatrician Dr Owen Sinclair told the Herald this week that current vaccination rates were “as low as has ever been recorded”.
The MMR vaccine is included in the national childhood immunisations schedule so most children should receive it at 12 months and 15 months.
Parents at the school were concerned more parents were choosing not to immunise their children.
“I am concerned about the impact that Covid-19 vaccine fearmongering and disinformation has had on other crucial vaccinations,” one parent said.
“Not only is the completion of the full course of childhood vaccines in New Zealand at an all-time low but disinformation is also at an absolute, all-time high and I think cases like these are the result.
Parents said the outbreak meant more time away from school for a generation that had been at home a record amount of time because of Covid infections and lockdowns, teacher strikes and weather events.
“Over the last three years, there has been a massive amount of disruption to education, and I think we are only starting to see the beginnings of the impacts this will have on young people in Aotearoa,” the parent said.
A statement from Te Whatu Ora said students and staff who are not immune might develop symptoms in the next few days.
Early symptoms included a fever and a cough with a rash developing a few days later.
Other symptoms included sore red eyes, runny nose and tiredness.
Dr Owen Sinclair said the disease was incredibly lethal and infectious.
“Between one and three children per thousand who get measles will die,” Sinclair said this week.
