The Ordeal of the Herpes Kids

By Claudia Wallis

"Look out! Here comes the herpes kid."

"I don't want to touch him."

These jeers greeted Johnny Bigley, 3, when he arrived at school last week in Pasadena, Md., escorted by his father. Johnny is too young to understand why he is being spurned by the older children, why all five of his classmates have boycotted the special speech-therapy course he attends, and why their parents sought a court order to bar him from the classroom.

Johnny is a victim not only of the disease but of the fears that it arouses, especially among the parents of school-age children. His case is not unique. Several instances of school boycotts involving children with herpes have been reported over the past year, and recently two more came to light.

In Council Bluffs, Iowa, more than half the 343 students at Longfellow Elementary School boycotted classes to protest the enrollment of a three-year- old girl with herpes. The local teachers' union filed suit to prevent her from attending preschool there. The child, whose name has not been revealed, suffers every five months or so from an eruption of sores on her thighs, forearms or hands.

At the Ethel Phillips Elementary School in Sacramento, a similar campaign was directed at a four-year-old boy infected with a form of herpes called cytomegalovirus. Parents picketed outside the school, carrying signs reading YOUR CHILD NEEDS AN EDUCATION, NOT A DISEASE.

Public health officials sought to quell the growing panic. "The parents were concerned that their children would get some horrible, disfiguring disease," says Dr. Steven Strauss, a virologist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. Strauss went to nearby Pasadena to assure parents, teachers and union officials that their fears were unfounded. Although the herpes viruses can be dangerous for newborns (sometimes causing blindness, mental retardation or even death), they present a relatively minor risk to school-age children. In fact, by age 18, some 80% to 95% of Americans have been exposed to at least one of the five types of herpes viruses; most experience no symptoms at all. True, some 10% to 30% of those exposed to herpes simplex Type 1 will develop cold sores, but these facial eruptions, mostly around the mouth and nose, hardly qualify as a disfiguring disease. The three victims of the boycotts have more serious symptoms because they were exposed prenatally or around the time of birth.

According to Dr. Ward Cates, director of the Division of Venereal Disease Control at Atlanta's Centers for Disease Control, there may actually be an advantage in childhood exposure to herpes. Says he: "Having herpes for the first time as an adult is more serious than having it as a child." Cates points out that herpes almost always spreads through direct contact with a lesion or saliva or other body fluids. Says he: "The risk of transmission in a school setting is negligible."

Such assurances did not prevent two of the current cases from winding up in court. In both Council Bluffs and Pasadena, judges ruled that the afflicted children should be allowed to attend school but must submit to a daily inspection by school nurses. The Maryland judge stipulated that Johnny Bigley wear clothing that covers his lesions and ordered special precautions to protect the school employees who change his diapers.

Ed Bigley, Johnny's father, feels no bitterness about the boycott or the ruling. "These other parents aren't villains," he says. "They give a damn about their kids just as I do about mine." He was also pleased that by late last week a few children at school were venturing close to say hello to his son. "It looks like the other students may be accepting him."

With reporting by Leslie Cauley/Atlanta and Patricia Delaney/Washington