A total of 17 students at the East Bay Waldorf School have been diagnosed with the highly contagious lung disease.

The Contra Costa Health Services Department closed the school Friday and required students, faculty and staff prove that they were symptom-free and taking antibiotics before allowing classes to resume. Public health nurses were at the school Monday morning to provide screenings.

Those who choose not to take antibiotics will not be allowed back to school for 21 days. If they remain symptom-free, they will be allowed back May 30, according to county health officials.

The school, which is in an unincorporated part of the county, has about 300 students between kindergarten and 12th grade and at least half of the infected children are in kindergarten, according to health officials. The East Bay Waldorf School has an unusually high number of children who are not vaccinated against the infection, health officials said.

Once thought to have been virtually wiped out in the United States, cases of whooping cough have been on the rise in California, in part because some people fear that the vaccine can cause seizures, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism.

(clo)