Par­ents of pupils at­tend­ing the San Fer­nan­do AS­JA Pri­ma­ry School plan to keep their chil­dren away from class­es to­day fol­low­ing re­ports of cas­es of hand-foot-and-mouth dis­ease (HFMD).

They said ex­ams were can­celled and class­es were end­ed ear­ly yes­ter­day as a re­sult of the sus­pect­ed out­break.

How­ev­er, in a state­ment late yes­ter­day, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion said all nec­es­sary health pro­to­cols had been im­ple­ment­ed at the school. Tests were car­ried out on the com­pound by the Min­istry of Health per­son­nel, but they have not yet con­firmed the pres­ence of the dis­ease.

“Mean­while, the school re­mains open, since the Min­istry of Health has not giv­en in­struc­tions to close the school,” the state­ment said.

One par­ent said at least eight pupils in the In­fant class­es be­gan suf­fer­ing from se­vere di­ar­rhoea and nau­sea and on Wednes­day, when they were alert­ed to a pos­si­ble out­break, par­ents rushed to the school to pick up their chil­dren.

“There were kids vom­it­ing yes­ter­day (Wednes­day), but I thought they had it un­der con­trol. I am not send­ing my son to school to­mor­row (to­day),” one par­ent said.

Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion Dr Lovell Fran­cis said yes­ter­day that doc­tors had treat­ed three pupils for vom­it­ing and dizzi­ness. How­ev­er, he said they have not yet pro­vid­ed a full re­port on the in­ci­dent.

In a let­ter, a copy post­ed to the Face­book page of the school’s Par­ent/Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (PTA), prin­ci­pal Karen Mo­hammed in­vit­ed par­ents of In­fants One and Two pupils, to­geth­er with PTA ex­ec­u­tives, to at­tend a sen­si­ti­sa­tion ses­sion with the Min­istry of Health on the dis­ease. The let­ter stat­ed that due to the lack of space and be­cause this age group is more sus­cep­ti­ble to the dis­ease, on­ly those par­ents were in­vit­ed.

The PTA ex­ec­u­tive al­so wrote: “As of to­day, No­vem­ber 28, 2018, there have been a num­ber of con­firmed cas­es of hand-foot-and-mouth dis­ease in our school. There have al­so been a num­ber of cas­es of gas­troen­teri­tis, which ap­pear to be vi­ral and spread­ing across stu­dents. Please be as­sured that we are work­ing with the school’s ad­min­is­tra­tion and pro­vid­ing all sup­port pos­si­ble.

“The school ad­min­is­tra­tion is in con­tact with the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties, and there is a meet­ing with the Min­istry of Health card­ed for to­mor­row (to­day) at 9 am to sen­si­tise par­ents. In the in­ter­im, we sin­cere­ly ask that par­ents keep chil­dren at home who have been con­firmed as car­ry­ing the ill­ness or are show­ing symp­toms which in­clude fever, vom­it­ing and rash­es. In such cas­es, we ask that you prompt­ly con­sult a doc­tor. “

It added: “For par­ents who are con­cerned about their child con­tract­ing the ill­ness, we hear your con­cerns and rec­om­mend that you do what you think is best in terms of send­ing your child to school. We em­pathise with each of you and ask for your sup­port to nav­i­gate this is­sue suc­cess­ful­ly.”

Mo­hammed could not be reached for com­ment on the sit­u­a­tion yes­ter­day,

Hand-foot-and-mouth dis­ease is a mild but con­ta­gious vi­ral in­fec­tion that is com­mon in young chil­dren. It is char­ac­terised by sores in the mouth and a rash on the hands and feet.