With new case reported Monday, chickenpox outbreak will drag into new year, officials say
ASHEVILLE — The chickenpox outbreak that in late October started at a private school isn't over, according to county health officials, who say the virus has sickened people outside of the school.
In addition to the 37 Asheville Waldorf School students who contracted chickenpox in the weeks following the first case, four people in the community have become ill, according to the Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services.
The onset of rash in the most recent Asheville case occurred Monday, said Buncombe health department spokeswoman Stacey Wood.
Wood would not say whether the four cases outside of Asheville Waldorf School were reported in parents or the friends of sickened students.
There are no longer any pending quarantine orders, the last of which expired on Nov. 20, she said.
The health department, acting in accordance with the rules set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will not declare Asheville's chickenpox outbreak finished until 42 days after the onset of the most recent case.
Given Monday's case, the health department won't be declaring the outbreak over until sometime in the new year — Jan. 7, if no new cases are reported.
This chickenpox outbreak drew national attention as the West Asheville private school became the battleground for debate over the efficacy of vaccines.
Roughly 75 percent of the school's 152 students — ranging in age from 2 to 12 — hadn't received a varicella vaccine. Varicella is the virus responsible for both chickenpox and shingles.
Barring two outliers, Asheville Waldorf had the highest percentage of incoming kindergartners during 2017 whose parents had claimed religious exemption from one or more mandatory vaccine.
In North Carolina, a religious exemption can be obtained with relative ease. There is no official paperwork. State statute, however, doesn't allow parents to forgo vaccination for their children based on their personal beliefs.
After county health officials learned of the early chickenpox cases at Asheville Waldorf School in the final days of October, the Buncombe health department issued a quarantine order to 104 students.
In announcing the order, County Health Director Jan Shepard wrote that "the intent of this quarantine is to decrease the risk of transmission of the illness and protect the health of non-immune students, staff and community members."
On behalf of two minor children attending the school, Asheville attorney Lakota Denton challenged the quarantine order, which initially prevented children from leaving their homes, on the basis that it was too restrictive, trampling children's civil liberties.
A Superior Court judge struck down a portion of the quarantine order, stating that the county could only prevent sick children from attending school.
Wood said Thursday that the county hasn't issued any quarantine orders in relation to this outbreak that are pending.