Commonground
Senior Moderator
TORRINGTON ? With Gov. M. Jodi Rell ordering 500,000 doses of swine flue vaccine by October, local health and school officials across Litchfield County are bracing for a possible return of the H1N1 virus.
The Torrington Area Health District is coordinating with area school districts to formulate a plan for the flu, which has killed nine state residents since arriving in Connecticut this spring and hospitalized 139.
Assistant Director Leslie Polito said the district knows a lot more about the flu this time around, and they?re prepared.
?There was a lot of panic and information and some unknowns,? Polito said of the original outbreak.
Swine flu has proved to be less severe than originally reported, Polito said. More than 50 percent of the cases have been young people and all disease related deaths have been with patients with underlying chronic conditions.
?Most people get better on their own after anti-viral treatment,? Polito said.
The health district is organizing 15 flu clinics beginning on Sept. 24 at the Litchfield Firehouse from 3 to 6 p.m. and sponsoring ?Get on the Ball,? a new program to encourage young people to protect themselves against any strains of the flu (see info box).
Still, during a recent appearance before the Connecticut Board of Education, state Epidemiologist Matthew Carter said the percentage of the population that catches flu could rise to 40 percent, from 15 to 20 percent in an average year.
In Winsted, Dr. Mohammed Khera said he saw more than 100 cases of H1N1 at his pediatric practice.
?We were seeing cases up to June and early-July,? Khera said, adding that when the flu first arrived, he fielded a steady stream of calls from panicked parents.
Khera said he expected more than twice as many cases this fall.
In Torrington, Kate Pesce, a nurse practitioner at Torrington-Winsted Pediatrics, said she is advising parents to make sure their children wash their hands.
?It?s inevitable germs are going to be swapped,? she said, ?My advice is get good rest and wash your hands very, very often. If you go to the grocery store, get your hands clean with the sanitizer. Wash your hands after gym class.?
Pesce said the practice would be distributing between 2,000 and 3,000 doses of the swine flu vaccine this fall.
But what happens if a student tests positive for the H1N1 virus? Should the schools close?
That was the problem Winsted school superintendent Blaise Salerno faced in May, when Batcheller Elementary School and Pearson Middle School were closed after two students exhibited flu-like symptoms. The students, who were siblings, later tested negative for the flu and both schools were opened the next day.
If this happened today, Salerno said, both schools would be kept open.
?We were operating under pretty intense conditions,? Salerno said. ?The guidelines handed to us by the CDC were on a day-to-day change basis.?
As of September, policy has changed. At Tuesday?s Board of Education meeting, Salerno handed out an 11-page plan that outlines a four-level system in the event of a pandemic flu.
Thomaston, Region 7 and Region 10 school districts have set up similar policies that balance necessary precautions while not causing panic.
Interviews with a half-a-dozen school officials reveal a more tempered and prepared approach to make sure schools stay open in the case of an outbreak.
In Litchfield, Superintendent Deborah Wheeler said she met with the school?s administrative council and school nurses Wednesday to formulate the school?s health policy.
The school has developed a sanitizer system, made disinfectant available in all of the classrooms and is posting news on the district?s Web site, www.litchfieldschools.org, Wheeler said.
In Torrington, Bill Joslyn, director of human resources, said the school district had a meeting before school started and was closely following directions from the Center for Disease Control, in Atlanta.
?We can?t know more than them,? Josleyn said.
The school district knows a lot more about swine flu since spring, ?when everything was coming fast and furious,? Joselyn said.
?We now know swine flu doesn?t live on a surface for more than two to four hours,? he said. ?We worked very hard to clean them thoroughly on the surface, so the whole idea of closing schools to clean them doesn?t make a whole lot of sense.?
Staff writer Dan Ivers contributed to this report. Alex Taylor can be reached by e-mail at winsted@registercitizen.com.
http://www.registercitizen.com/articles/2009/09/13/news/doc4aac7308e8ffd714096840.txt
The Torrington Area Health District is coordinating with area school districts to formulate a plan for the flu, which has killed nine state residents since arriving in Connecticut this spring and hospitalized 139.
Assistant Director Leslie Polito said the district knows a lot more about the flu this time around, and they?re prepared.
?There was a lot of panic and information and some unknowns,? Polito said of the original outbreak.
Swine flu has proved to be less severe than originally reported, Polito said. More than 50 percent of the cases have been young people and all disease related deaths have been with patients with underlying chronic conditions.
?Most people get better on their own after anti-viral treatment,? Polito said.
The health district is organizing 15 flu clinics beginning on Sept. 24 at the Litchfield Firehouse from 3 to 6 p.m. and sponsoring ?Get on the Ball,? a new program to encourage young people to protect themselves against any strains of the flu (see info box).
Still, during a recent appearance before the Connecticut Board of Education, state Epidemiologist Matthew Carter said the percentage of the population that catches flu could rise to 40 percent, from 15 to 20 percent in an average year.
In Winsted, Dr. Mohammed Khera said he saw more than 100 cases of H1N1 at his pediatric practice.
?We were seeing cases up to June and early-July,? Khera said, adding that when the flu first arrived, he fielded a steady stream of calls from panicked parents.
Khera said he expected more than twice as many cases this fall.
In Torrington, Kate Pesce, a nurse practitioner at Torrington-Winsted Pediatrics, said she is advising parents to make sure their children wash their hands.
?It?s inevitable germs are going to be swapped,? she said, ?My advice is get good rest and wash your hands very, very often. If you go to the grocery store, get your hands clean with the sanitizer. Wash your hands after gym class.?
Pesce said the practice would be distributing between 2,000 and 3,000 doses of the swine flu vaccine this fall.
But what happens if a student tests positive for the H1N1 virus? Should the schools close?
That was the problem Winsted school superintendent Blaise Salerno faced in May, when Batcheller Elementary School and Pearson Middle School were closed after two students exhibited flu-like symptoms. The students, who were siblings, later tested negative for the flu and both schools were opened the next day.
If this happened today, Salerno said, both schools would be kept open.
?We were operating under pretty intense conditions,? Salerno said. ?The guidelines handed to us by the CDC were on a day-to-day change basis.?
As of September, policy has changed. At Tuesday?s Board of Education meeting, Salerno handed out an 11-page plan that outlines a four-level system in the event of a pandemic flu.
Thomaston, Region 7 and Region 10 school districts have set up similar policies that balance necessary precautions while not causing panic.
Interviews with a half-a-dozen school officials reveal a more tempered and prepared approach to make sure schools stay open in the case of an outbreak.
In Litchfield, Superintendent Deborah Wheeler said she met with the school?s administrative council and school nurses Wednesday to formulate the school?s health policy.
The school has developed a sanitizer system, made disinfectant available in all of the classrooms and is posting news on the district?s Web site, www.litchfieldschools.org, Wheeler said.
In Torrington, Bill Joslyn, director of human resources, said the school district had a meeting before school started and was closely following directions from the Center for Disease Control, in Atlanta.
?We can?t know more than them,? Josleyn said.
The school district knows a lot more about swine flu since spring, ?when everything was coming fast and furious,? Joselyn said.
?We now know swine flu doesn?t live on a surface for more than two to four hours,? he said. ?We worked very hard to clean them thoroughly on the surface, so the whole idea of closing schools to clean them doesn?t make a whole lot of sense.?
Staff writer Dan Ivers contributed to this report. Alex Taylor can be reached by e-mail at winsted@registercitizen.com.
http://www.registercitizen.com/articles/2009/09/13/news/doc4aac7308e8ffd714096840.txt
