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By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings January 06. 2015 6:51PM Keeping a close eye on chickenpox Jenay Elder holds her son Solomon, 18 months, while he receives a vaccination at La Clinica's West Medford Health Center. Daily Tigings file photo If the number of chickenpox cases in the Ashland School District continues to rise, the district’s next step will be to exclude children from school who do not have immunity, ASD director of student services Samuel Bogdanove said Monday. Currently, the district is asking parents to keep their children out of school if they’ve been exposed to the viral illness through a sibling and are not immunized, but that plea may be expanded to include all who have not been immunized if the current regulations don’t do the trick. On Monday, another chickenpox case was reported in Ashland, bringing the total number of chickenpox cases to 27. What’s the risk that that number will continue to grow? Bogdanove says that’s yet to be determined. “It really depends on the number of kids that don’t have the immunity,” he said. “You can the immunity one of two ways, of course.” That’s by either getting the two-dose chickenpox vaccine or by actually contracting chickenpox, which typically takes seven to 10 days to run its course in children. “They have to be around someone else who’s infected,” Bogdanove said. “That can happen at school, in the community, anywhere, so it’s hard to predict.” The potential for Ashland’s chickenpox outbreak to spread further exists, however. According to Bogdanove, there are 77 students in the district who haven’t had chickenpox and haven’t been vaccinated and close to 600 who are “under-immunized”, or have not received their second dose — the first dose is recommended for children ages 12 to 15 months and the second for children ages 4 to 6 years old. The schedule changes for older children or adults who never received the first vaccination dose. “So there could be a fair number of students that could be affected,” Bogdanove said. Only two siblings stayed home Monday in accordance with ASD’s new policy, which was announced in the form of a two-page press release Friday. The policy was devised by ASD and the Jackson County Department of Health . As far as seeing it through, Bogdanove said, that’s up to the parents. “We’re not enforcing it,” he said. “We’re really trying to educate parents and inform parents. Right now we’re just asking if, in the house there’s one child who’s sick and the other is not immunized that they stay home. With the small number of cases the parents have been more than willing to do the right thing, so it hasn’t been an issue. “I think they appreciate a straightforward approach. So far, the feedback that I’ve received has been positive.” With its low vaccination rate, Ashland may be especially vulnerable to outbreaks of both chickenpox and whooping cough. According to a study by the Southern Oregon University Research Center submitted in 2013, only 81.2 percent of students in the district had completed the chickenpox vaccination. The schools with the lowest vaccination rates were Willow Wind (47 percent) and John Muir (61 percent). In mid-December, when Ashland’s chickenpox outbreak was still just shy of 20 cases, 15 of those were from Willow Wind. “Obviously in Oregon it’s a parent’s individual decision about whether or not immunization is right for them,” Bogdanove said. Near the end of Friday’s press release, ASD and the Jackson County Department of Health encouraged parents to consult their local health care provider and visit ashlandchild.org , a website that “supports parents who are making the decision about immunizations,” according to the site’s “about us” page. According to ashlandchild.org, before the chickenpox virus became mainstream infections in the United States led to more than 10,000 hospitalizations and 100 to 150 deaths each year – or about two to three deaths a week. “The varicella (chickenpox) vaccine is a live attenuated vaccine,” it reads, “meaning the actual virus is still alive but has been altered so that it is very unlikely to cause an infection. However, it will still trick the immune system into building up antibodies against it.” According to healthychildren.org, chickenpox causes a rash, itching, fever and fatigue and can led to severe skin infection, scars, pneumonia, brain damage or death. It can spread through the air or by contact with fluid from chickenpox blisters. A person who had had chickenpox may also get shingles — a painful rash — a year or more later. The Jackson County Health Department (at 1005 E. Main St., Building A, Medford) offers vaccines from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. and from 1 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Shots cost $21.90 for children without health insurance, and about $69.43 (Tdap) to $130 (chickenpox vaccine) for adults without insurance. No appointment is necessary. Call 541-774-8209 for more information. What's your take on this story? Click here to submit a letter to the editor.  — Joe Zavala is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings. Reach him at 541-821-0829 or [email protected]. What do you think? Send a letter to the editor at http://services.esouthernoregon.com/reader-services/submissions/letter-to-editor/. http://www.dailytidings.com/article/20150106/News/150109904 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. 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