http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-md.flu02may02,0,6814662.story
Four schools closed as flu precaution
Cases suspected in four counties
By Stephanie Desmon, Kelly Brewington and Arin Gencer and
May 2, 2009
Gov. Martin O'Malley shuttered four schools Friday attended by students suspected of having the swine flu - even though there are no confirmed cases of the virus in Maryland yet - and said the state will close any public or private school where a student is believed to be infected.
The move comes a day after health officials said there was no need to cancel classes at schools with suspected cases of the new virus and reassured parents in Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties that it was safe to send their children back to schools where students had become sick.
O'Malley signed an executive order declaring a public health emergency. He said health officials reversed course after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came out Friday with new guidelines recommending the strict closure policy designed to stop the spread of the swine flu, which has now sickened 141 people in 19 states and killed a toddler in Texas. There are many more suspected cases, including 11 likely ones in Maryland.
"The goal here is to create more social distance," O'Malley said. "If we can create distance in a place where we have a probable case, the hope is that we can slow down somewhat the advance of the flu."
The affected schools are: Rockville High School in Montgomery County; Milford Mill Academy in Baltimore County; Folger McKinsey Elementary School in Anne Arundel County; and Montpelier Elementary School in Prince George's County. The schools will be closed for up to 14 days. Extracurricular activities also are canceled.
Rockville High never opened Friday because a student there appeared to be the first person in Maryland thought to have acquired the virus without having contact with someone who had traveled to Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak and the place with the most severe cases. Later, officials determined that the ill student at Montpelier also had no link to Mexico or any other affected country.
The schools in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties, where officials announced Wednesday that there were likely cases, were open for the past two days despite the knowledge that a sick child attended each school. Many parents kept their children home. At Milford Mill, parents are being told that school will open Thursday. Frances Phillips, deputy state health secretary, said decisions to reopen will be made on a case-by-case basis.
Dr. Peter C. Beilenson, who heads the Howard County Health Department, called it "an overreaction to close schools" based on a single probable case of the new virus. The CDC policy also suggests that entire school districts be closed if more than one school in the system has students believed to be infected, though Maryland officials say they haven't discussed that yet.
"If this was January and there were three kids out of high school [with the seasonal flu], we don't close the high school, and we certainly don't close the school district, for God's sake," Beilenson said.
The seasonal flu kills an average of 36,000 people in the U.S. each year and hospitalizes hundreds of thousands.
One of the reasons for the school closure policy change, officials said, is that CDC scientists have adjusted their estimate of the disease's incubation period, from three to seven days to seven to 10 days, meaning sick people are contagious longer than previously believed.
Cases of swine flu - now being called the H1N1 flu by health officials - have mostly been mild in the United States and nearly all have been linked to a person who has been to Mexico, where the disease is believed to have killed more than 100 and sickened many more. Still, health officials say they are acting cautiously because they just don't know what the virus will do since it is new and no one is protected from it.
"We're just one week into this," Dr. Anne Schuchat, CDC's interim deputy director for science and public health programs, told reporters. "More and more communities are being affected, and more people are being directly impacted."
More than 400 schools in 18 states were closed Friday because of possible swine flu cases, resulting in 250,000 children being dismissed from classes, according to a U.S. Department of Education spokesman. Five colleges or universities in four states were also closed.
With children out of school, parents are left scrambling for child care. "I did not for a second underestimate the economic challenge and the tremendous inconvenience that this may pose to many parents," O'Malley said. "Fortunately, there will be a weekend where parents have an opportunity to try to make some arrangements."
Meanwhile, health officials are discouraging students from congregating outside school, in places such as malls or at parties, where the virus could just as easily be spread as if they were in school.
George Carr didn't want his daughter to return earlier this week to Milford Mill, where she is a senior, because he was afraid she would get sick. She insisted, though, because she wanted to be sure she could graduate on time. Carr said he had been pushing to have the school closed - and cleaned - ever since he found out about the possible case of swine flu. He called elected officials and the state health department, among other people, he said.
"Everybody was assuring me there was no problem, there's no need to close down the school," said Carr, who is president of Milford Mill's PTSA. Now, with the school actually closing, Carr said he won't let the matter rest.
"This shouldn't have happened. I don't want it to happen again," he said. "When they knew there was a problem, they should have closed the school down and disinfected and sanitized - the whole nine yards, like they did in Rockville."
With so much still unknown about the virus, public health officials say they are trying to strike a balance between protecting people from the disease and allowing people to live their lives.
"The argument in favor of closing the schools is to say, 'We don't yet know exactly how severe these cases are going to be,' " said Dr. James Nataro, head of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. There is some evidence, he said, that "if you close schools early in an epidemic, you can really [slow] the spread of the infection."
At the same time, "if you close schools, the large majority of people you're turning out of the schools, they're healthy. Where are they going to go? They may be going to malls" where they might be just as likely to catch the flu as in school.
"Either position at this point - closing or not closing - is a defensible one. We don't know the right answer."
Baltimore Sun reporter Julie Scharper contributed to this article.
information
The toll-free line set up by the state of Maryland, 1-877-633-5848, is open from 9 a.m.-9 p.m Monday through Friday and 9 a.m.-6 p.m on weekends. Questions can also be e-mailed to swineflu@dhmh.state.md.us.
Four schools closed as flu precaution
Cases suspected in four counties
By Stephanie Desmon, Kelly Brewington and Arin Gencer and
May 2, 2009
Gov. Martin O'Malley shuttered four schools Friday attended by students suspected of having the swine flu - even though there are no confirmed cases of the virus in Maryland yet - and said the state will close any public or private school where a student is believed to be infected.
The move comes a day after health officials said there was no need to cancel classes at schools with suspected cases of the new virus and reassured parents in Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties that it was safe to send their children back to schools where students had become sick.
O'Malley signed an executive order declaring a public health emergency. He said health officials reversed course after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came out Friday with new guidelines recommending the strict closure policy designed to stop the spread of the swine flu, which has now sickened 141 people in 19 states and killed a toddler in Texas. There are many more suspected cases, including 11 likely ones in Maryland.
"The goal here is to create more social distance," O'Malley said. "If we can create distance in a place where we have a probable case, the hope is that we can slow down somewhat the advance of the flu."
The affected schools are: Rockville High School in Montgomery County; Milford Mill Academy in Baltimore County; Folger McKinsey Elementary School in Anne Arundel County; and Montpelier Elementary School in Prince George's County. The schools will be closed for up to 14 days. Extracurricular activities also are canceled.
Rockville High never opened Friday because a student there appeared to be the first person in Maryland thought to have acquired the virus without having contact with someone who had traveled to Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak and the place with the most severe cases. Later, officials determined that the ill student at Montpelier also had no link to Mexico or any other affected country.
The schools in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties, where officials announced Wednesday that there were likely cases, were open for the past two days despite the knowledge that a sick child attended each school. Many parents kept their children home. At Milford Mill, parents are being told that school will open Thursday. Frances Phillips, deputy state health secretary, said decisions to reopen will be made on a case-by-case basis.
Dr. Peter C. Beilenson, who heads the Howard County Health Department, called it "an overreaction to close schools" based on a single probable case of the new virus. The CDC policy also suggests that entire school districts be closed if more than one school in the system has students believed to be infected, though Maryland officials say they haven't discussed that yet.
"If this was January and there were three kids out of high school [with the seasonal flu], we don't close the high school, and we certainly don't close the school district, for God's sake," Beilenson said.
The seasonal flu kills an average of 36,000 people in the U.S. each year and hospitalizes hundreds of thousands.
One of the reasons for the school closure policy change, officials said, is that CDC scientists have adjusted their estimate of the disease's incubation period, from three to seven days to seven to 10 days, meaning sick people are contagious longer than previously believed.
Cases of swine flu - now being called the H1N1 flu by health officials - have mostly been mild in the United States and nearly all have been linked to a person who has been to Mexico, where the disease is believed to have killed more than 100 and sickened many more. Still, health officials say they are acting cautiously because they just don't know what the virus will do since it is new and no one is protected from it.
"We're just one week into this," Dr. Anne Schuchat, CDC's interim deputy director for science and public health programs, told reporters. "More and more communities are being affected, and more people are being directly impacted."
More than 400 schools in 18 states were closed Friday because of possible swine flu cases, resulting in 250,000 children being dismissed from classes, according to a U.S. Department of Education spokesman. Five colleges or universities in four states were also closed.
With children out of school, parents are left scrambling for child care. "I did not for a second underestimate the economic challenge and the tremendous inconvenience that this may pose to many parents," O'Malley said. "Fortunately, there will be a weekend where parents have an opportunity to try to make some arrangements."
Meanwhile, health officials are discouraging students from congregating outside school, in places such as malls or at parties, where the virus could just as easily be spread as if they were in school.
George Carr didn't want his daughter to return earlier this week to Milford Mill, where she is a senior, because he was afraid she would get sick. She insisted, though, because she wanted to be sure she could graduate on time. Carr said he had been pushing to have the school closed - and cleaned - ever since he found out about the possible case of swine flu. He called elected officials and the state health department, among other people, he said.
"Everybody was assuring me there was no problem, there's no need to close down the school," said Carr, who is president of Milford Mill's PTSA. Now, with the school actually closing, Carr said he won't let the matter rest.
"This shouldn't have happened. I don't want it to happen again," he said. "When they knew there was a problem, they should have closed the school down and disinfected and sanitized - the whole nine yards, like they did in Rockville."
With so much still unknown about the virus, public health officials say they are trying to strike a balance between protecting people from the disease and allowing people to live their lives.
"The argument in favor of closing the schools is to say, 'We don't yet know exactly how severe these cases are going to be,' " said Dr. James Nataro, head of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. There is some evidence, he said, that "if you close schools early in an epidemic, you can really [slow] the spread of the infection."
At the same time, "if you close schools, the large majority of people you're turning out of the schools, they're healthy. Where are they going to go? They may be going to malls" where they might be just as likely to catch the flu as in school.
"Either position at this point - closing or not closing - is a defensible one. We don't know the right answer."
Baltimore Sun reporter Julie Scharper contributed to this article.
information
The toll-free line set up by the state of Maryland, 1-877-633-5848, is open from 9 a.m.-9 p.m Monday through Friday and 9 a.m.-6 p.m on weekends. Questions can also be e-mailed to swineflu@dhmh.state.md.us.