More W'burg Yeshivas Not Following Measles Vaccine Rules: City

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — Health officials have found two more yeshivas in the neighborhood that are letting unvaccinated children attend school despite an ongoing measles outbreak in Brooklyn. The news comes just weeks after the city announced that it had traced two dozen cases of the disease to another Williamsburg school.

Bnos Chayil on Wythe Avenue and Bnos Chayil on Hewes Street both flouted an order from the city's health department not to let unvaccinated children return to school during the outbreak, which started in October and has since infected 158 people mainly in the borough's Orthodox Jewish Community.

The order, which started in December, applied to certain Williamsburg and Borough Park zip codes and was meant to prevent the highly infectious and potentially fatal virus from spreading, health department officials said. The disease has reached 138 children and 21 adults so far.

"The outbreak is not over, and we will continue to see additional cases as long as unvaccinated students are not properly excluded from attending school," said Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot.

The two Williamsburg schools were released in a report detailing five total yeshivas in Brooklyn that were found to have violated the health department's orders.

Three of the five schools allowed contagious students to attend classes, officials said.

The report comes just weeks after the health department linked a large number of new measles cases to one Williamsburg yeshiva, Yeshiva Kehilath Yakov Pupa. The yeshiva is now connected to 28 cases in students and an additional 14 cases directly linked to the school, health officials said.

Here are all the schools listed in the report:

Brooklyn Yeshivas named in the report:

• Bnos Square of Williamsburg at 382 Willoughby Ave. in Bed-Stuy
• Bnos Chayil at 712 Wythe Ave. in Williamsburg
• Bnos Chayil at 345 Hewes St. in Williamsburg
• Tiferes Bnos at 585 Marcy Ave. in Bed-Stuy
• Simche Kinder at 808 Myrtle Ave. in Bed-Stuy

One child was sent to the intensive care unit and 11 people have been hospitalized during the measles outbreak, officials said.

More than 7,000 people have received the MMR vaccine since the Health Department launched its campaign to stop the measles spread in October.