Mysterious rash now in Portland schools

February 22, 2002

February 20, 2002

PORTLAND - Last week, the mystery rash that has affected school children in

several eastern states made it's way into Oregon. The rash was reported in

children in Medford, and now the Portland area.

The good news? The unknown rash doesn't seem to be making children sick. The

only real symptom is a rash that looks like a sunburn.

While it appears that children are contracting the rash at while at school,

there's no clue what's causing it.

Student Amber describes her rash that showed up out of the blue last

week as a sunburn. When it didn't go away, it got her mom's attention.

" Just the fact that I'd never seen a rash before that's a solid sunburn. We

were flying out of town that night, so I decided I just had to get her in

and get it checked, " said Amber's mother .

It turned out Amber was fine to travel. But doctors couldn't say exactly

what she had.

It was the same story at schools in Medford last week; 42 children, and five

adults developed this mysterious rash. Students in Washington, Pennsylvania,

New York, West Virginia and Virginia have all reported similar outbreaks.

It's still not clear if any of this is connected. Dr. Karn Southwick at the

Oregon Human Services Department says while they have ruled out several

environmental factors, they're still looking.

" They've also just asked lots of questions, " explained Dr.Southwick. They've

looked at the ventilation, cleaning solutions, all of these have been

normal. "

The sunburn aspect resembles something called fifth disease. The difference

is this new rash isn't contagious.

Another theory doctors looked into is that the rash is being spread by text

books; in Medford, that has been ruled out.

If your child develops the rash, doctors say it will probably go away on

it's own. You can treat it with an over the counter anti-histamine or

cortisone cream. Doctors caution if symptoms extend past the skin, to

include things like fever or nausea, you should check with your doctor.

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