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Source: http://www.connpost.com/ci_12750715
State and local officials prep for fall flu season
Updated: 07/03/2009 09:57:53 PM EDT
By Eileen FitzGerald
Staff writer
DANBURY ? City school custodians are getting a head start on flu season this summer. Across the city they?re disinfecting classrooms and installing more hand sanitizer.
State health and education officials will hold a workshop this month for local health officials to review how the H1N1 flu was managed this spring, with the goal of improving how schools manage children who are sick with a contagious disease.
?We know that children are more susceptible and can transmit the virus more readily,?? Danbury school health coordinator Suzanne Levasseur said.
?There are a lot of unknowns with this. We don?t know for sure if it (swine flu) will return and how it will affect the schools, but we are preparing in the event that it returns.??
The workshop will pay special attention to school closure, she said, but that and clean buildings aren?t enough.
?We have to educate parents to keep their kids home for seven days,? Levasseur said.
The state wants to review the response to the flu and how it can be improved.
?We want to look at what worked and didn?t work,? Diana Lejardi, spokesperson for the state Department of Health, said Monday. ?We want to decide what is the best way to handle future outbreaks.?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set the guidelines the state followed last spring, she said, but it changed its directives during the spring.
At some points the CDC advised shutting a school if a child tested positive for the virus.
?When schools should close was a big issue in the spring, and hopefully in the fall there will be a more consistent approach,?? Lejardi said.
?The H1N1 was so new to us. It was a novel virus, and it was an evolving situation that was changing day-to-day.??
Contact Eileen FitzGerald
at eileenf@newstimes.com
State and local officials prep for fall flu season
Updated: 07/03/2009 09:57:53 PM EDT
By Eileen FitzGerald
Staff writer
DANBURY ? City school custodians are getting a head start on flu season this summer. Across the city they?re disinfecting classrooms and installing more hand sanitizer.
State health and education officials will hold a workshop this month for local health officials to review how the H1N1 flu was managed this spring, with the goal of improving how schools manage children who are sick with a contagious disease.
?We know that children are more susceptible and can transmit the virus more readily,?? Danbury school health coordinator Suzanne Levasseur said.
?There are a lot of unknowns with this. We don?t know for sure if it (swine flu) will return and how it will affect the schools, but we are preparing in the event that it returns.??
The workshop will pay special attention to school closure, she said, but that and clean buildings aren?t enough.
?We have to educate parents to keep their kids home for seven days,? Levasseur said.
The state wants to review the response to the flu and how it can be improved.
?We want to look at what worked and didn?t work,? Diana Lejardi, spokesperson for the state Department of Health, said Monday. ?We want to decide what is the best way to handle future outbreaks.?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set the guidelines the state followed last spring, she said, but it changed its directives during the spring.
At some points the CDC advised shutting a school if a child tested positive for the virus.
?When schools should close was a big issue in the spring, and hopefully in the fall there will be a more consistent approach,?? Lejardi said.
?The H1N1 was so new to us. It was a novel virus, and it was an evolving situation that was changing day-to-day.??
Contact Eileen FitzGerald
at eileenf@newstimes.com