Derby High School’s football game with Seymour was canceled this week after five players on the Derby team contracted coxsackie virus, aka hand, foot, and mouth disease, Superintendent Matthew Conway said.
The five students will be cleared by doctors before returning to the school, which Conway said has been cleaned extensively this week.
Click the play button on the video above to see Conway speak at a press conference Wednesday afternoon alongside Dr. Fred Browne, chief medical officer at Griffin Hospital.
Derby High School Principal Martin Pascale informed parents of the outbreak in a Sept. 19 letter.
Article continues after Pascale’s letter.
Conway said Wednesday said school officials learned Monday that four students had been diagnosed with coxsackie virus — a fifth student was identified Wednesday, Conway said.
All five students are on the football team.
The virus is spread through close personal contact and can infect anyone, but typically occurs in younger children, Browne said.
“It’s not unheard of (in older children). It’s usually associated with children who have close contact (with each other),” Browne said.
He said typical symptoms are fever, sore throat, and ulcers around the hands, mouth, feet.
Click here for a fact sheet from the state’s Department of Public Health.
Conway said that every area of the high school has been disinfected with a peroxide-based “green” disinfectant. So were any locations used by the football team.
“We disinfected the entire school as well as field house, locker rooms, football equipment, water bottles, you name it, anything that they touched was disinfected twice so far and we have a crew in the field house now doing it a third time just to make sure we get everything,” Conway said.
So, is it safe to be at Derby High School?
“The individuals who have been identified are not in the buildings and everything has been disinfected, so I assume that to be safe,” Conway said.
Browne said coxsackie is a “self-limiting“ virus that runs its course after about three to five days.
He said the best way to prevent contracting it is to wash your hands often with either alcohol swabs or soap and water.
“Once you treat, once you clean the area with an appropriate disinfectant, it goes away,” he said.
The superintendent said Friday’s football game will be rescheduled to the third week of October.
He thanked Seymour school officials for agreeing to the delay.
Conway said the football team didn’t practice Monday or Tuesday, and will have “non-contact” practices the rest of the week.
