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Flu outbreak reported in local schools
By Melanie Wilkinson
Published: Thursday, October 15, 2009
YORK ?
It hasn?t been confirmed as H1N1, but a number of young people have been stricken with the flu in area schools. Health experts say H1N1 is suspected because it arrived well before the regular flu season.
Vicki Duey, executive director of the Four Corners Health Department, said this past week that ?we have had numerous absences from schools by children with the symptoms of the flu. Some schools have had over 20 percent of the children in one building out of school.?
Heartland Community Schools is one of the districts seeing a drop in attendance as students have fallen ill.
Heartland Superintendent Norm Yoder said his district activated its parent notification system on Monday evening, after 23 percent of the student body was absent due to illness. That percentage went to 27 percent on Tuesday, he said, but it?s improving ? 19 percent of Heartland students were absent on Wednesday.
?We?ve reminded parents that if their child is running a fever, they need to keep he or she home,? Yoder said. ?We?ve also asked that students remain at home at least one day without a fever, before returning to school? in order to stop the spread of illness.
At Nebraska Lutheran High School in Waco, the challenge of illness is unique because students live in a dormitory situation. NLHS representative Linda Nunnenkamp said Wednesday morning that things are starting to improve there.
Nunnenkamp acknowledged that before the school?s previously planned three-day break (which ended Wednesday), the volleyball team in particular had been hit hard by illness, forcing them to cancel some competition.
?Everyone went home for a few days, for the scheduled break, and today, we?ve only got three out due to illness,? Nunnenkamp said.
She added that of the students who have been sick in the last week or so, one has been confirmed to have had H1N1.
Regarding the dormitory situation, in which the students live together, NLHS has a plan in place.
?If a student is sick, we contact the parents, who in turn come and get them,? she explained. ?We also have an isolated room we can use, just in case.?
At York Public Schools, there were a number of students not in attendance on Wednesday, but influenza was not necessarily confirmed. A school representative said 25 elementary students were home, compared to 14 from the high school and 11 from the middle school. She stressed that the absences were listed as ?illness related? and not specific to influenza.
A nurse at Centennial Public Schools said her district ?is doing OK,? without a noticeable amount of illness-related absences.
There were no classes scheduled at Cross County on Wednesday, due to a teacher work-day ? so no information was available regarding ill children.
In McCool Junction, a school representative said there were seven students absent due to being sick.
In the Four Corners district, which includes Butler, Polk, Seward and York Counties, there have been two people hospitalized with H1N1, according to the most recent reports. There have been four hospitalizations in cases called ?all influenza,? which weren?t specifically categorized. There have been no deaths associated with H1N1 or typical influenza in the Fourth Corners jurisdiction.
?There is so much information being shared about the H1N1 flu,? says Vicki Duey, Four Corners? executive director. ?When a new strain of flu is first identified, it often hits the younger population harder than elders. The H1N1 exemplifies that. During the week ending Sept. 26, there were 11 influenza-associated deaths of children under 18 in the United States.?
Duey maintains that the H1N1 vaccine is safe.
?There have been many questions about the safety of the H1N1 vaccine,? Duey says. ?Clinical trials conducted by the National Institute of Health and the vaccine manufacturers have shown that the new H1N1 vaccine is both safe and effective. The FDA has licensed it. There have been no safety shortcuts.
?It is produced exactly the same way the seasonal flu vaccine is produced every year,? Duey continued. ?It is simply a new virus strain. In fact, had H1N1 struck this country earlier than this spring, the H1N1 strain probably would have been included as part of this year?s seasonal flu shot.?
Four Corners says limited doses of the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine are being received in this jurisdiction at this time. The first target groups recommended to receive the H1N1 intranasal spray are healthy people who are 2-24 years old, and 25-49 years old who live with or provide care for infants younger than six months or are health-care emergency medical personnel.
Four Corners representatives say that because the spray uses a live virus, pregnant women ? an otherwise targeted group ? cannot be treated with this first batch of vaccine.
By Melanie Wilkinson
Published: Thursday, October 15, 2009
YORK ?
It hasn?t been confirmed as H1N1, but a number of young people have been stricken with the flu in area schools. Health experts say H1N1 is suspected because it arrived well before the regular flu season.
Vicki Duey, executive director of the Four Corners Health Department, said this past week that ?we have had numerous absences from schools by children with the symptoms of the flu. Some schools have had over 20 percent of the children in one building out of school.?
Heartland Community Schools is one of the districts seeing a drop in attendance as students have fallen ill.
Heartland Superintendent Norm Yoder said his district activated its parent notification system on Monday evening, after 23 percent of the student body was absent due to illness. That percentage went to 27 percent on Tuesday, he said, but it?s improving ? 19 percent of Heartland students were absent on Wednesday.
?We?ve reminded parents that if their child is running a fever, they need to keep he or she home,? Yoder said. ?We?ve also asked that students remain at home at least one day without a fever, before returning to school? in order to stop the spread of illness.
At Nebraska Lutheran High School in Waco, the challenge of illness is unique because students live in a dormitory situation. NLHS representative Linda Nunnenkamp said Wednesday morning that things are starting to improve there.
Nunnenkamp acknowledged that before the school?s previously planned three-day break (which ended Wednesday), the volleyball team in particular had been hit hard by illness, forcing them to cancel some competition.
?Everyone went home for a few days, for the scheduled break, and today, we?ve only got three out due to illness,? Nunnenkamp said.
She added that of the students who have been sick in the last week or so, one has been confirmed to have had H1N1.
Regarding the dormitory situation, in which the students live together, NLHS has a plan in place.
?If a student is sick, we contact the parents, who in turn come and get them,? she explained. ?We also have an isolated room we can use, just in case.?
At York Public Schools, there were a number of students not in attendance on Wednesday, but influenza was not necessarily confirmed. A school representative said 25 elementary students were home, compared to 14 from the high school and 11 from the middle school. She stressed that the absences were listed as ?illness related? and not specific to influenza.
A nurse at Centennial Public Schools said her district ?is doing OK,? without a noticeable amount of illness-related absences.
There were no classes scheduled at Cross County on Wednesday, due to a teacher work-day ? so no information was available regarding ill children.
In McCool Junction, a school representative said there were seven students absent due to being sick.
In the Four Corners district, which includes Butler, Polk, Seward and York Counties, there have been two people hospitalized with H1N1, according to the most recent reports. There have been four hospitalizations in cases called ?all influenza,? which weren?t specifically categorized. There have been no deaths associated with H1N1 or typical influenza in the Fourth Corners jurisdiction.
?There is so much information being shared about the H1N1 flu,? says Vicki Duey, Four Corners? executive director. ?When a new strain of flu is first identified, it often hits the younger population harder than elders. The H1N1 exemplifies that. During the week ending Sept. 26, there were 11 influenza-associated deaths of children under 18 in the United States.?
Duey maintains that the H1N1 vaccine is safe.
?There have been many questions about the safety of the H1N1 vaccine,? Duey says. ?Clinical trials conducted by the National Institute of Health and the vaccine manufacturers have shown that the new H1N1 vaccine is both safe and effective. The FDA has licensed it. There have been no safety shortcuts.
?It is produced exactly the same way the seasonal flu vaccine is produced every year,? Duey continued. ?It is simply a new virus strain. In fact, had H1N1 struck this country earlier than this spring, the H1N1 strain probably would have been included as part of this year?s seasonal flu shot.?
Four Corners says limited doses of the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine are being received in this jurisdiction at this time. The first target groups recommended to receive the H1N1 intranasal spray are healthy people who are 2-24 years old, and 25-49 years old who live with or provide care for infants younger than six months or are health-care emergency medical personnel.
Four Corners representatives say that because the spray uses a live virus, pregnant women ? an otherwise targeted group ? cannot be treated with this first batch of vaccine.
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