Rashes Trigger Cleanup at Day Care: 7 of 65 Children, 1 Staff Member Treated for Mystery Skin Irritation

By Joe Marusak, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Oct. 20–MOORESVILLE — Workers at Central Child Development Center on Academy Street have been sanitizing classrooms, toys, water fountains, sinks and bathrooms after an unusual number of rashes appeared on children this week.

Seven of the center’s 65 children have been treated by their family doctors for rashes, Susan Helsabeck, the center’s director, said Friday. Two of the children had strep throat and two had poison ivy, she said. Doctors in other cases haven’t told the center what may have caused the rashes but “all responded to treatment,” she said. One staff member also was treated for a rash.

The Iredell County Health Department sent two environmental specialists to survey the center’s playground, she said. The specialists found no poison ivy, poison oak or related poisonous plants, Helsabeck said in a letter to parents that the Observer obtained from the Health Department on Friday.

A child-health nurse from the Iredell County Partnership for Young Children also inspected the center, and Helsabeck told parents she’s also had numerous talks with the department’s infectious disease nurse.

“Due to the small number of individuals with rashes, this is not an issue that should cause alarm,” Helsabeck said in the letter. She urged parents who detect a rash on their child to take them to a doctor.

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