A private school in the city shut down for the day within two hours of commencement of classes on Monday, after 15 students, mostly from the primary section, reported fever and rash on the hands.
More than 900 students were sent back home as the administration of Innisfree House School in J.P. Nagar II Phase feared an outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease after two students who were diagnosed of the disease returned to school on Monday. On the same day, 15 students reported having a temperature.
The school has announced that it will reopen only on Friday after sanitation and fumigation of the school premises.
Management representatives said they had received emails on Monday from two parents of students in classes 2 and 3, both doctors that their children had been diagnosed with the disease recently, and were cured.
F. Bolar, founder of the school, said: “Though the mails claimed that the children were cured, we observed rashes and blisters on the arms of one of the kids. It was also strange that 15 students reported sick with a running temperature within an hour of classes commencing. Hand, foot and mouth disease is highly infectious and children below the age of 10 are very vulnerable; children above 10 years act as carriers. So we decided to shut down the entire school.”
The school contacted the parents of the children at around 10.30 a.m. and asked them to pick up their wards. There was tension as apprehensive parents rushed to the school. Parents were seen taking their wards to nearby hospitals in the area for a medical examination.
Ms. Bolar also complained that Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials, who were alerted, were not co-operative and did not know how to fumigate and sanitise the premises to prevent further spread of the disease.
However, K. Prakash, BEO South-1, said the school should have sought the department’s permission before taking such decisions. “We will send a fact-finding team to the school,” he said.
