Scabies outbreak occurred at Fowler school, prompting classroom to be disinfected
A scabies outbreak occurred at a Fowler Unified School District school, the district and the Fresno County Department of Public Health confirmed Wednesday.
The incident happened in April, with five people developing an itchy rash from the contagious skin infestation that’s caused by a little bug burrowing under people’s skin to live, feed and lay eggs.
An outbreak is defined as two or more epidemiologically related cases.
The Fowler school reported the incident to the Fresno County Department of Public Health and implemented some precautionary measures, which included cleaning and disinfecting the affected classroom and entire school site immediately after being notified.
As of Thursday, there had been no reports of scabies occurring outside the one classroom in the Fowler school district.
The health department has encouraged students to continue attending school despite the outbreak, and health teams continue to monitor all sites and will reach out to families for any suspicious rashes.
Though contagious, scabies is considered to be a low risk to the public and is not life-threatening.
