Billerica Students Come Down With 'Mystery Rash'

April 6, 2002

Tuesday April 02 07:05 PM EST

Billerica became the second Massachusetts town to deal with a mysterious

rash among its schoolchildren Tuesday.

NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that the rash is similar to one that

broke out in Dennis, Mass., on Cape Cod last week.

" They need to find out what's going on with the schools, " said Ana Homem,

whose son, Craig, developed a rash Tuesday afternoon.

School officials said that the rash was confined to Locke Middle School in

Billerica, where 40 to 50 kids have contracted it. It has since started to

spread to the other nine schools in the community.

The outbreak came one week after a mysterious rash shut down a middle school

in Dennis. That school was cleaned and tested and found to be free of

contaminants.

" It's a funny thing, " Billerica School Superintendent Calabrese said.

" We had one of our youth hockey teams down on the Cape recently in a hockey

tournament. They were all swimming in the swimming pool where they were

staying in the town of Dennis. That seems to be the only connection right

now, but that's a stretch. "

Health officials sent home letters to parents explaining that the rash is

very itchy and can be treated with calamine lotion or Benadryl. The rash

typically lasts for a short time and causes no other ill effects.

" The whole purpose of this letter is to let people know this is something

that is not being ignored. We're looking into it, " Calabrese said.

The state Department of Public Health (news - web sites) said that the rash

is not dangerous, and rashes are common this time of year.

" A lot of them are due to weather changes, " Dr. Bela Matyas said. " It starts

to get warm outside, the heating system at the school tends to overwork on

weekends, underwork at other times. There have been many, many situations

reported in the literature of rashes caused by that hot, dry air. "

Matyas said that some rashes could signal a more serious condition, so

parents should take their children to a doctor if they see a rash.

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