Schools respond to flu threat
Posted on:
Friday, May 1, 2009 - 12:50pm
On Thursday morning, April 30, District 13 Superintendent Susan Viccaro participated in a conference call with the governor, health department officials and several school superintendents to hear more about swine flu, a variety of N1H1 flu.
“It was very helpful and basically they said they have new equipment, they’re on top of this, they don’t want anyone to panic or overreact, they’re monitoring all hospitals in the state, they’re meeting with municipalities every day and doing everything they can to treat all probable cases,” she said.
There is no definitive answer on the child in Middlefield, but Viccaro said according to Dr. Huddleston, it will probably be determined by tomorrow if he is positive for swine flu. Viccaro said officials on the conference call reiterated that they do not recommend closing schools in District 13 because the child was not in school this week. Also, doctors clarified that type 1 flu can still be a seasonal flu. But when a flu is non-typable, it is sent off to the Center for Disease Control, which is what happened with the Middlefield case, she said.
Viccaro noted that officials said swine flu is spread through person to person contact and is actually not persistent on surfaces such as tables and doorknobs, so spraying a disinfectant is not likely to help from spreading, though she had school fixtures sprayed. At this time, officials have told Viccaro they are not recommending travel restrictions, such as canceling field trips. With the question of siblings, it depends on whether they are experiencing symptoms. Viccaro was told that if the sibling is a-symptomatic, it is not recommended that they be excluded from school.
(Editor’s note: A comment posted yesterday on our website took District 13 to task because the apparently infected child’s siblings did attend school; however, Viccaro specifically noted that the experts knew this and do not recommend keeping family members home unless they also show signs of sickness.)
In the event that a case is confirmed positive and the child had attended school, the school is recommended to close for seven days.
“My understanding is that some schools have been closing even though they are not told to do so,” Viccaro.
Finally, Viccaro said she learned that there will likely be more cases and each case will be different because it depends on so many factors.
