--- title: 18 New Caney students have hepatitis date: 2004-12-10T10:54:54-08:00 author: Bill Marler canonical_url: "https://marlerclark.com/news_events/18-new-caney-students-have-hepatitis" section: News --- [All News](/news_events) / # 18 New Caney students have hepatitis By Nancy Flake, Courier Staff December 10, 2004 Conroe, TX – For the second time in less than two months, an outbreak of hepatitis A has been confirmed in New Caney schools, this time affecting 18 students. None of the students with the disease, which affects the liver, has been hospitalized, according to Pat Buzbee, director of Montgomery County Health Services, who has been coordinating efforts to find the cause of the outbreak. Seventeen of the students with the virus attend White Oak Middle School, which opened in August. The 18th student attends Crippen Elementary School. In the October outbreak, six students at White Oak Middle School and one student at Bens Branch Elementary School were confirmed with the virus and two were hospitalized. As in the last outbreak, which occurred in early to mid-October, the school’s water supply has been tested repeatedly and has shown no evidence of the virus. “We have ruled that out,” Buzbee said. “We’ve done environmental site checks at some of the homes (in the Briartree subdivision, where the school is located). We haven’t turned up anything to speak of. “It’s been quite puzzling. There are some underlying factors I can’t go into. It’s like hunting a needle in a haystack.” Several homes in the Briartree subdivision are on septic systems, but Buzbee said any possible leaching of the systems into the groundwater is not the cause of the outbreak. “If it did it that way, you would have many more cases,” he said. He also said a possible contact at a home that might have been a vector has turned up nothing. “There’s nothing definitive we can point to,” he said. An immunization clinic, run by officials with the New Caney Independent School District and the University of Texas Medical Branch-New Caney, to administer hepatitis A vaccine and gamma globulin was being held Thursday for students and staff. It will continue today and Monday. A clinic also was held in October during the first outbreak, but only 178 students out of the school’s more than 800 got the immunizations, according to New Caney Independent School District spokeswoman Cindee Reynolds. “Hopefully, many, many of our children will take advantage of this,” she said. “We were given a clean bill of health from the beginning. Texas Department of Health came in and interviewed all the food workers and anyone who cleans in there.” Cafeteria equipment also was tested. Marie Cox, of Porter, whose son attends White Oak Middle School, said she was unaware of the outbreak until Wednesday night, when her son told her about it. “My son’s concerned about it,” she said. “He says he’s not going to drink from the water fountain. He’s even nervous about using the restroom. It’s got to affect their ability to concentrate.” Cox has not had her son immunized for hepatitis A. “There’s no reason I shouldn’t give the school a call and find out more about it,” she said. Buzbee said more than 200 students had gotten immunized at the clinic Thursday. “We’re hoping there’ll be more,” he said. He believed the virus was being passed from student to student. “That age of kids, they’re lax in washing hands,” he said. According to the Centers for Disease Control, an estimated 33 percent of Americans have been infected with hepatitis A virus, which is transmitted by ingestion of fecal-contaminated food and water, or through close personal contact with an infected person. Symptoms range from no symptoms to fatigue, fever and jaundice, abdominal pain, nausea and diarrhea. There is no chronic long-term infection, and about 15 percent of people infected with HAV will have prolonged or relapsing symptoms over a six- to nine-month period. Montgomery County’s rate of infection for 1987-97 per 100,000 population is 6.56, which is considered medium risk. Nancy Flake can be reached at Facts about Hepatitis A: \* Hepatitis A is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis A virus, which is spread from person to person by putting something in the mouth that has been contaminated with the stool of a person with hepatitis A. \* Signs and symptoms: jaundice, fatigue, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, nausea, diarrhea, fever Number of cases per 100,000 population in Montgomery County for 1987-97 is 6.56, which is considered medium risk. The average rate in Texas is 16.38 cases per 100,000 population. \* There is no chronic long-term infection from hepatitis A; once you have had hepatitis A you cannot get it again. About 15 percent of people infected with HAV will have prolonged or relapsing symptoms over a six- to nine-month period. \* The hepatitis A vaccine is the protection. Immune globulin (gamma globulin) provides short-term protection. Always wash your hands with soap and water after using the bathroom, changing a diaper and before preparing and eating food. 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