Dear Parents or Guardians:

The disease Streptococcal Infection or Scarlet Fever and Mononucleosis is occurring in your child’s school, and your child may have been exposed. You may want to call your doctor if any of the symptoms listed below appear. Everyone is better protected when an ill child is kept at home while contagious. It is especially important for your child’s health that home care continue until his/her temperature is normal for 24 hours and symptoms have disappeared. Other children who have come in contact with the ill child may attend school as long as they are not ill.

Streptococcal Infection or Scarlet Fever begins suddenly with vomiting, fever, sore throat, and headache. A bright red rash usually appears within 24 hours. The rash may not appear, but the disease is just as serious. If your child has these symptoms, please call your doctor. If the child is receiving treatment with an effective antibiotic, isolation may be discontinued 24 hours after treatment is begun. If not receiving antibiotic the child should be isolated for at least seven days from beginning of disease and until all signs completely disappear. This incubation period is one to three days.

Mononucleosis is an acute infectious disease caused by a virus and characterized by fever, sore throat, infected lymph glands which ofter are swollen, enlarged and tender, loss of appetite and malaise. Their mode of transmission are respirator droplets and from person-to-person via saliva. Young children may be infected by saliva on the hands of students or on toys. The incubation period lasts 4 to 6 weeks. Should your child present any of these symptoms, we recommend that you consult your family healthcare provider. Students must have a note from a healthcare provider stating they may return to school and if any activities should be limited, or if they are to remain at home. Exclusion from school will be based on the healthcare provider’s recommendations.