FOX Carolina 21Shigella outbreak leaves dozens of students sick

Shirley Hughes and her 5-year-old daughter Mackenzie looked over her homework assignment Tuesday night. She's a student at Honea Path Elementary school and said she likes it there.

"I learn my ABC's," Mackenzie said.

Shirley Hughes said she learned a new word too.

"I had never heard of it," she said.

Now Shigella is part of her vocabulary. It's a word taught to her by a doctor who she said told her that Mackenzie had the bacterial infection.

"She was sick about two weeks. She had diarrhea, vomiting and a high fever," Hughes said.

Hughes said a few days later, the principal of  Honea Path Elementary School sent a letter home to parents which explained what Shigella is and the importance of hand washing.

FOX Carolina received a copy of the letter along with a statement from Thomas Chapman, the superintendent with Anderson County School District 2.

It reads as follows:

"We are cleaning the entire school before, during and after school hours. Teachers are also talking to students about the importance of washing their hands and not putting their hands in their mouths. We're doing everything we can to combat this."

Health administrators with the state Department of Health and Environmental Control said Shigella is a bacteria that is spread when a person uses a bathroom, but doesn't wash his or hands at all or long enough, then makes contact with someone else.

"The letter was also saying that a bunch of kids had been diagnosed with it and it was contagious," she said.

All Mackenzie knew was that she didn't feel well.

"I couldn't sleep at all," she said.

And although sleep deprivation isn't a direct symptom of Shigella, Adam Myrick, the Public Information Director with DHEC, said high fever, vomiting and diarrhea are.

"Make sure they wash their hands before they eat, after they eat, after they go to the bathroom," he said.

He said administrators with DHEC are working with the staff at the school on ways to stop the spread of the bacteria. But he said parents need to help too.

"In other words, if they've thrown up at 4:00 for the last time on an afternoon, you need to wait a full day after that before sending them back to school," Myrick said.

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