Interrogation from county health dept over chicken pox?!

[mum2sarah]

We don't vax and have filed a state exemption for my kids (ie. we've followed all the legal procedures correctly for not vaxing).  Last week both dds came down with chicken pox and as soon as I realized that's what they had, I kept them home from school but informed their school in case anyone was vulnerable.  Today I got a phone call from my county health dept telling me they'd received a report from the school that my kids had chicken pox and asking me all sorts of questions about their chicken pox: who is their dr?  when did they first show symptoms?  what were their symptoms? etc. etc.  I felt very defensive/intimidated and like this was some sort of privacy invasion; like I was being interrogated by CPS for allowing my kids to develop the plague or something.  Has anyone else had this happen?  What is this all about?  Do they really call the home of everyone in the county (a highly populated metropolitan county) every time a kid comes down with a simple case of chicken pox, that less than a generation ago was considered a common childhood illness???  The lady said she was going to call again in a few days to see how the kids were doing.  Should I be worried about the implications of this?  What are my rights in this matter?  This is not a situation I'd ever anticipated or considered...

[carriebft]

Chicken Pox is a disease that gets reported and recorded. To what degree depends on state I think...like some states only report hospitalizations and others report all cases...

[lyterae]

I had this happen of a suspected case of Mumps... They were "strongly" requesting that we take DD in for a blood test to determine if it was actually the mumps.

[carriebft]

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:uGzgKqp21_8J:www.psea.org/uploadedFiles/PupilServices/VaricellaOutbreakGuidelines.pdf+Pennsylvania+varicella+outbreak&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh-4TLBnkwKi5dcMEDnpjTWaRULVMQjRr6cMqfC3erizYuug490u6zmW13G8-3KBjGgEfJcPT2DVmvPbjoUCU1X94jDkljyuiIL5Lezs-4yw5K60LAAROqBHbpwVzdEJ6p3YSlv&sig=AHIEtbTo7s6a_oVfEAvfTqgy2Twlm7xOtQ

as you can see, Pa requires that all cases be reported by the school within 24 hours. more regulations found in the document.

[mum2sarah]

Thank you for the info everyone.  I had no idea that these things were reported like this.  I guess it's probably similar for other "vaccine preventable" illnesses?  I'm still a little unclear as to how much info I need to disclose to them, but at least it seems they're just following up to document the case and nothing more sinister...

[carriebft]

you might be able to discover what is necessary for reporting and what, if any, may be "overboard" by calling the local health department. Explain to them that the disease has been reported as of the first phone call (and obviously the school has reported as well) and that you were wondering what the other official procedures are or something...honestly, after reporting and if I am following the regulations as far as quarantine from school and whatnot goes, I wouldn't be entertaining their calls any further unless there was some official reason for it.

[Amatullah0]

yeah, ds's food poisoning was reported(either by his ped or the hospital that found the bacteria in his stool) they called me at freaking 9 in the morning, the first time they called, i didn't know who it was, i was trying to sleep, so i didn't answer it, then they called a minute later and i answered. it was quite annoying, they asked where he got it from, and i think they told me how to deal with it or something(like washing your hands after you change his diaper)

i don't think they ever bothered me again about it though

[angelpie545]

It all depends on the state.  My kids' chicken pox wasn't reported to the health department here in WA, but the cat bite I got from my kitten certainly was. They called and made sure I knew what to do and all.