Panic about the outbreak of chickenpox in a private school in North Carolina

Twenty-eight students from private schools in North Carolina now have chicken pox in an epidemic that began last week.

The number of children infected at the Asheville Waldorf School rose from 13 to the previous week, Buncombe County Health and Social Services said Monday.

In a statement, school directors said they had provided information about the outbreak to the Ministry of Health.

The rate of unvaccinated children in North Carolina has doubled between 2012 and 2016 because of the simplicity of the exemption rules for religious reasons.

The school Asheville Waldorf now has 28 cases of chicken pox, compared with 13 last week. The rate of unvaccinated children in North Carolina doubled between 2012 and 2016 because of the ease with which the exemption rules are met (image of file)

To obtain a medical exemption, parents need a doctor proving that their child is immunocompromised and that the vaccine would cause him harm, and the state must approve his claim to prove it.

However, the religious exemption is much simpler. There is no supervision. The parent only needs to write a letter to the school to enforce his religious beliefs and his child is exempted.

According to an article in The News & Observer in North Carolina last year, the rate of children exempted for medical reasons remains low (only 180 children). But religious exemptions have increased dramatically, from 871 in 2012 to 2,073 in 2016.

The lack of an approval process means "you do not even have to believe in God," Alan Phillips, a lawyer in Asheville, told the newspaper.

Dr. Jennifer Mullendore, Medical Director of Buncombe County, said students who could not provide evidence of varicella vaccination had been quarantined for 21 days. One of the infected children goes to another school.

Asheville Waldorf, a private school, opened in 2009, first with the name Azalea Mountain School.

It serves students from kindergarten to Grade 6, with about 130 students, up to $ 8,900 a year.

"The Asheville Waldorf School is committed to protecting the health and safety of our community," said the school in a statement.