Strange Rash Baffles Medical Sleuths

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17487-2002Feb15.html

Strange Rash Baffles Medical Sleuths

By Rubinkam

Associated Press Writer

Friday, February 15, 2002; 5:09 PM

PHILADELPHIA -- Hundreds of youngsters in at least seven states have broken

out in a mysterious rash, and some health investigators suspect it might be

caused by a new or yet-to-be-identified virus.

The red, itchy rash appears to be more an annoyance than a serious health

threat, but it has managed to temporarily close schools, worry parents and

frustrate school administrators, for whom answers have been elusive.

Students in Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Oregon

and Washington state have complained about rashes on the face, arms, legs

and body. For the most part, the rash goes away when the students leave

school.

" For something like this to occur almost simultaneously in different parts

of the country is, to my knowledge, unprecedented, " said Dr. Norman Sykes,

who examined about 30 suburban Philadelphia students who came down with the

rash this month.

In the Quakertown Community School District, where nearly 170 students at

all nine schools were confirmed to have the rash, an environmental company

collected air and water samples and examined carpets, floor mats, vacuum

bags and clothing, but all tested negative for contaminants.

" We may never know what this thing is, " said Quakertown Superintendent Jim

Scanlon.

Most school systems have ruled out an environmental cause, but not the

Peninsula School District in Gig Harbor, Wash., where more than 50 students

and teachers complained about a rash.

Test results showed an abnormally high level of dust, dandruff and skin

particles - probably caused by an overactive ventilation system that took

too much moisture out of the air.

" People are very concerned about their children, " said Peninsula

Superintendent Jim Coolican. " We say its not a long-term problem, but people

say, 'How do you know? How do you know it won't be a problem for my child 10

years from now?' "

Sykes, a dermatologist and professor at Jefferson Medical College in

Philadelphia, suspects the culprit in Quakertown is either a mutation of the

childhood illness known as fifth disease or a virus not yet known to

science.

Fifth disease, so-called because it was once considered one of the five main

childhood illnesses, produces a low fever and cold-like symptoms, followed

by a rash that creates a " slapped cheek " appearance and a lacy red rash on

the trunk, arms and legs.

Though Sykes' patients had those same symptoms, a blood test turned up no

evidence of the virus that causes the disease. Sykes then performed a more

sophisticated test and found DNA evidence of fifth disease virus. But nine

other students tested negative for fifth disease.

" We only know a tiny, tiny percentage, certainly less than 10 percent, of

the organisms that are in and on our bodies, " said infectious-disease expert

Madeline Drexler, author of " Secret Agents: The Menace of Emerging

Infections. "

Scanlon, the Quakertown superintendent, believes some of the rashes might

have been caused by psychosomatic " hysteria. " And some rashes were not

rashes at all - high school students rubbed themselves with sandpaper in a

futile attempt to get the school shut down, he said.

" We sat there itching and then it got all red and bumpy and then it started

stinging. I put a paper towel on it so it wouldn't burn that much, " said

8-year-old Makl, who went to the hospital on the first day of the

Quakertown outbreak.

Quakertown parent Ruppel said the rashes are distracting his two

children from their school work.

" I really wish they could find the cause, " said the father of a 10-year-old

boy and 12-year-old girl. " But you can't keep them out of school. "

© 2002 The Associated Press