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Flu not yet affecting attendance at schools
Published Tuesday October 13th, 2009
By James Mallory
Local school districts report no increase in student absenteeism this fall despite ongoing flu concerns.
Fears have been rising in recent months due to the H1N1 flu virus, often referred to as the swine flu. In early June, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the swine flu outbreak to be a pandemic.
In view of this, many are taking precautions such as parents keeping their children home if they exhibit flu-like symptoms. However, with a month of classes already past since the start of the new school year, it's a case of so far so good in School District 15, which oversees the English schools from Bathurst to Campbellton.
"We haven't noticed any increase at this point," said superintendent John McLaughlin. "We monitor absences and report them to Public Health when we know that people are absent because of the flu or any kind of illness."
"At any point during the year, the flu can hit. You never know when exactly when it's going to be...It's just something we monitor and never know when it's going to happen."
Mr. McLaughlin said teachers submit attendance records to the school principal and the principal passes those numbers on to Public Health if there is a spike.
As for precautions against getting sick, District 15 takes its lead from the provincial Department of Health, and Mr. McLaughlin said students, staff and parents have been notified of the various tips.
"We're working with all of our students reminding them to do vigorous handwashing, coughing and sneezing into their sleeve and we've been communicating that to parents as well...and also to stay home when they're not feeling well. We've communicated that to parents and all of staff as well."
Eloi Doucet is the director of finance and administration for District 5, which covers the French schools in this region. He said students are still coming to school on a regular basis and attendence rates are normal.
"There's no increase to absenteeism," he said.
Mr. Doucet said School District 5 is also following the lead of the the Province of New Brunswick.
"Our main information centre is the Department of Health and Public Health, and we're following those indications that they give us. One of the indications is to notify parents and students the importance of washing your hands and it they cough to do in a proper way."
As for hand sanitizers, Mr. Doucet said District 5 did not recommend these in schools, but some schools have chosen to install them on their own.
"We go with the recommendation of the Department of Health and the Department of Education, and there's no recommendation to that effect as of now," he said.
"Some schools do. They took the initiative to install some in a few places but there's no initiative on a district level to install some in all the schools."
Many feel that hand sanitizers in schools are not a good idea, due to the alcohol base the mixture contains. Mr. McLaughlin said Dist. 15 agrees that the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers raises some concerns.
"What Public Health has recommended to us is the best precaution is to do handwashing and coughing into the sleeve. That's really where our efforts have been placed. We would be concerned about having an alcohol-based sanitizer in schools so that's not something we're placing everywhere."
Concluded Mr. McLaughlin: "We have placed some hand sanitizers in areas such as computer labs where keyboards are shared. They're not alcohol-based material that's in it but it does help with cleanliness."
http://thenorthernlight.canadaeast.com/news/article/821947
Published Tuesday October 13th, 2009
By James Mallory
Local school districts report no increase in student absenteeism this fall despite ongoing flu concerns.
Fears have been rising in recent months due to the H1N1 flu virus, often referred to as the swine flu. In early June, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the swine flu outbreak to be a pandemic.
In view of this, many are taking precautions such as parents keeping their children home if they exhibit flu-like symptoms. However, with a month of classes already past since the start of the new school year, it's a case of so far so good in School District 15, which oversees the English schools from Bathurst to Campbellton.
"We haven't noticed any increase at this point," said superintendent John McLaughlin. "We monitor absences and report them to Public Health when we know that people are absent because of the flu or any kind of illness."
"At any point during the year, the flu can hit. You never know when exactly when it's going to be...It's just something we monitor and never know when it's going to happen."
Mr. McLaughlin said teachers submit attendance records to the school principal and the principal passes those numbers on to Public Health if there is a spike.
As for precautions against getting sick, District 15 takes its lead from the provincial Department of Health, and Mr. McLaughlin said students, staff and parents have been notified of the various tips.
"We're working with all of our students reminding them to do vigorous handwashing, coughing and sneezing into their sleeve and we've been communicating that to parents as well...and also to stay home when they're not feeling well. We've communicated that to parents and all of staff as well."
Eloi Doucet is the director of finance and administration for District 5, which covers the French schools in this region. He said students are still coming to school on a regular basis and attendence rates are normal.
"There's no increase to absenteeism," he said.
Mr. Doucet said School District 5 is also following the lead of the the Province of New Brunswick.
"Our main information centre is the Department of Health and Public Health, and we're following those indications that they give us. One of the indications is to notify parents and students the importance of washing your hands and it they cough to do in a proper way."
As for hand sanitizers, Mr. Doucet said District 5 did not recommend these in schools, but some schools have chosen to install them on their own.
"We go with the recommendation of the Department of Health and the Department of Education, and there's no recommendation to that effect as of now," he said.
"Some schools do. They took the initiative to install some in a few places but there's no initiative on a district level to install some in all the schools."
Many feel that hand sanitizers in schools are not a good idea, due to the alcohol base the mixture contains. Mr. McLaughlin said Dist. 15 agrees that the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers raises some concerns.
"What Public Health has recommended to us is the best precaution is to do handwashing and coughing into the sleeve. That's really where our efforts have been placed. We would be concerned about having an alcohol-based sanitizer in schools so that's not something we're placing everywhere."
Concluded Mr. McLaughlin: "We have placed some hand sanitizers in areas such as computer labs where keyboards are shared. They're not alcohol-based material that's in it but it does help with cleanliness."
http://thenorthernlight.canadaeast.com/news/article/821947