School rash 'is probably a virus'

[ukcz]

Vomit virus hits school (Lewisham)

Vomit virus hits school (Lewisham)

Vomit virus hits school
Jan 31 2006
By Keely Sherbird

PARENTS have been panicked by a vomiting and diarrhoea illness that has struck down their children.

Health officials took swabs from the mouths of youngsters at Sandhurst Infant and Junior School, Catford, to find out the cause of the out-break.

The problem has been ongoing for several weeks and 18 pupils were absent from one class on Wednesday.

Officials from the South East London Health Protection Unit were called in by the Minard Road school and say the cause is probably a virus.

One concerned mum said: "My daughter had diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach cramps so bad it was like watching her in labour.

"It's like an epidemic because the children have been dropping like flies. We don't know what is causing it."

She said other children had suffered from swollen hands and feet.

Dr Rachel Heathĉock, from the health protection unit, said: "We can confirm that the unit is aware of cases of probable viral illness at a school in South-east London.

"Cases of viral illness are to be expected during the winter months. The unit is investigating the cause of this illness, and results of samples from a number of children will be available in around a week."

She said the unit had provided the school and parents with advice on reducing the spread of infection, including the importance of good hand hygiene and keeping ill children at home until 48 hours after symptoms have passed.

She added: "Those cases who are feeling particularly unwell, or whose symptoms have lasted more than 48 hours, have been advised to contact their GP."

Headteacher Val Hughes said: "Here at Sandhurst we take the health of our children very seriously and acted as soon as we realised there was a sickness bug at the school.

"Fortunately the bug seems to have passed and school is returning to normal."

The school is not alone in suffering from the so-called winter vomiting virus.

Lewisham Hospital has seen an increase in admissions of people suffering from that kind of complaint in recent weeks.

http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0500lewisham/tm_objectid=16645997&method=full&siteid=50100&headline=vomit-virus-hits-school-name_page.html

 

[ukcz]

Dodgy water in Sheffield?

Dodgy water in Sheffield?

Babies bathed in bottled water
Lucy Harvey

THREE babies on an intensive care ward at a Sheffield hospital are being bathed in bottled water after doctors found potentially fatal bacteria on their skin.


The water-borne bug serratia was found on them during routine tests at the neo-natal intensive care unit at the Hallamshire Hospital, prompting staff to isolate the three and test the hospital's water system, which has since been found not to be the source.

One of the babies was also found to have the pseudomonas bacteria ? another bug found naturally in the environment? but none of the children have been adversely affected. A hospital spokeswoman said they would continue to be bathed in bottled water this week as a precaution.

If the bacterium enters the bloodstream it can cause severe respiratory problems.

No other baby at the Jessop suite has tested positive for serratia.
"There is nothing to worry about. The babies are very ill to be on the unit in the first place but they are not unwell from the colonised serratia," said the spokeswoman.

"As an extra precaution, because of the other poorly babies, we have isolated them and given them specialised nursing care to stop cross-contamination.

"They have all got different strains of serratia and one has also got pseudomonas. We are trying to find if there is a common cause and are running various tests. To be on the safe side, we decided to test the water system and there was no colonisation in the system. We are running extra tests this week to be extra cautious."


23 January 2006

http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1323477

 

[ukcz]

Re: School rash 'is probably a virus'

Glimmer of hope after terrifying E.coli scare
Jan 23 2006
Western Mail Comment


A FEW months ago, whole communities across Wales were in the grip of a terrifying public health scare.

The E.coli outbreak cut a swathe across towns and Valleys throughout South Wales last September and October.

Statistics from the outbreak make for chilling reading.

In all, 158 people were affected, the vast majority children, pupils at 42 of our nation's schools.

Five adults and 28 children needed hospital care, with nine children transferred for specialist care in Bristol and Liverpool.

And, of course, the outbreak resulted in the tragic death of one boy who touched the hearts of mothers and fathers everywhere. The smiling image of Mason Jones, the dinosaur- mad five-year-old from Deri, near Caerphilly, will forever be associated with a tragedy that may have been all-too avoidable.

All these statistics make for chilling reading, but they do little to convey the actual human cost involved. From mid-September until its official end in December, the cost of the E.coli outbreak was immeasurably paid for in the tears, anxieties, suffering and anger of hundreds of parents and their children.

Today, the long road for some form of justice takes on a fresh impetus with the formation of a support and campaign group, born out of the plaintive wails of sick and suffering children. The lingering anger and resentment of parents such as Julie Price, who watched her son being brought to the brink of death, is now being channelled into a quest for answers.

Mothers and fathers who want to know why it happened, who want to know who was to blame for "poisoning" their sons and daughters, who want assurances that any mistakes made in the feeding of our most precious and vulnerable citizens will never be repeated.

We must all take note.

The issues surrounding the E.coli outbreak do not just affect a limited community in the South Wales Valleys. They affect the very future of our nation.

For years the debate around health and nutrition has focused on the so-called obesity timebomb. Fears have long been expressed that the food we give our next generation may well end up killing them. Last year that debate centred around the issue of school dinners.

But arguments about low costs and low standards gained an even greater urgency in light of a food bug that was picking off our nation's children one by one.

Despite the source of the outbreak still in doubt, it is clear that it raises a gamut of questions that may go to the very heart of how our society feeds its children.

The setting up of a support and campaign group can only be applauded, and represents the one glimmer of hope to come out of this sorry episode - especially if it helps prevent any future mistakes.

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100...-after-terrifying-e-coli-scare-name_page.html

 

[ukcz]

Sheffield

Sheffield

5,000 pupils struck down by flu
THOUSANDS of Sheffield children are off school as a flu epidemic sweeps the city - with some classes reporting pupil numbers down by as much as half.

City health watchdogs say attendance figures have fallen by an average of nine per cent, with primary schools worst hit - affecting at least 5,000 youngsters.


At schools like Wybourn and Stradbroke primaries a quarter of all pupils have been off sick this week.

Birley Primary is another to be badly affected, with one in five children poorly.

The virus affecting the city is the Influenza B strain - less serious that Influenza A - which has symptoms such as fever, headaches and vomiting. At Wybourn learning mentor Denise Raynes said attendance figures had dropped dramatically.

"Our attendances are right down and we've been hit particularly hard over the last fortnight," she said.

"We're into our third week of it now and it's proving to be a real problem - 11 children were off in one class, over a third."
At Birley Primary 77 children were reported sick on a single day - and a further 30 were sent home at lunchtime.

And at Reignhead Primary in Beighton, one class had 14 children off, almost half of those on the register.

The epidemic is the first to strike the city since 2003, when flu laid low 6,000 children in a single week.

The virus affects primary-age children most severely as they have little immunity when it makes one of its periodic returns.

But All Saints RC High School has also reported problems - there absence rates are 10 times above average with over 150 students ill.

Dr Rosie McNaught, public health consultant at the South Yorkshire Health Protection Agency, said some schools had reported gradual problems over the last three weeks, while at others dozens of pupils had gone down sick on the same day.

"Information is still coming in, but the situation seems to be getting more and more horrendous," she said.

The total picture was hard to ascertain as schools were not obliged to report absence rates, to the health or education authorities, she said.
Dr McNaught said children who had any symptoms should not be sent to school as it would spread the virus further.

"The most effective thing to do is keep washing your hands," she said. "When someone sneezes the virus is left on the hands and it is then transferred onto any surface someone touches, spreading it further."

A Rotherham education spokesman warned the epidemic in Sheffield could eventually spread to schools in Rotherham.

n Steelers struck by bug: See Back Page


01 February 2006

http://www.sheffieldtoday.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=58&ArticleID=1334506

 

[ukcz]

Re: Sheffield

Re: Sheffield

Originally posted at this thread: http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1648

Good catch!

Check the map. They missed out Anglesey, North Wales. Significant because of this and this. Google maps calls it Sir Ynys Mon, (the Welsh name).

So now the place that the Welsh disease started happened to be in the one place in Wales that known carriers, Whooper Swans, winter.

Where to see it Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern England and parts of East Anglia.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/guide/w/whooperswan/index.asp

 

[ukcz]

Note it's not called the "winter" vomiting bug anymore ;-)

Note it's not called the "winter" vomiting bug anymore ;-)

Vomiting bug spreads across city
Last Updated: Monday, 3 April 2006, 12:37 GMT 13:37

Thirteen schools are now closed and 70 are under "no visiting" restrictions as a winter vomiting bug tightens its grip on classrooms across Bradford.

The measures have affected almost half of the city's 88,000 pupils, the local education authority said on Monday.

It urged parents to impose an Easter holiday curfew on ill children in a bid to stop the spread of the virus.

The city council also said it feared the current outbreak was so widespread it could hit this year's GCSE results.

A spokeswoman said the local authority was preparing to send in teams of environmental health officers to deep-clean schools over the 11-day Easter break, which starts on Thursday 13 April.

One more school - Thornton primary - was added to the list of full closures on Monday. That means 83 of the city's 208 schools have been affected in some way.

Where restrictions are in place, parents are being asked to drop off and pick up children at the school gates and out-of-school clubs have been cancelled.

In total, 43 schools or nurseries have been closed in the city since the outbreak started in mid-February.

Anthony Mugan, head of Bradford Council's education client team, said: "During the Easter holiday we will continue to apply the appropriate precautions, restrictions, and deep cleans where appropriate on a case-by-case basis.

"We are also urging parents to help us to use the break as a chance to stop the spread of the bug and to keep their children at home if they are poorly.

"The virus is spreading daily to more schools, and schools are doing all they can to help stop it spreading further."

Children with symptoms of sickness or diarrhoea should not attend any community events during the break, such as sports camps and activities held in community halls, churches schools or mosques until they are clear of any symptoms for at least 48 hours.

"This is a community-wide issue and we hope people will work together to help us to wipe out the bug over Easter," said Mr Mugan.

A council spokeswoman said the outbreak had disrupted a scheme under which GCSE pupils move between the city's schools to study specialist subjects.

"This means they can't visit the schools which specialise in their subjects so there is real concern that this may affect our results this year," she said.


BRADFORD'S CLOSED SCHOOLS
Iqra Primary
High Fernley Primary
Carlton Bolling College
Woodlands Primary
Carrwood Primary
St Bede's Secondary
All Saint's Primary (Bradford)
Worthinghead Primary (reception)
Nab Wood Secondary
Barker End Primary
Thornton Primary

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/4872382.stm