Commonground
Senior Moderator
By MICHAEL COUSINEAU
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009
Almost one quarter of Bow's public-school students were absent Thursday, with most of the 378 absentees reporting flu-like illnesses in what the state's public health director called the largest outbreak in a New Hampshire school district this year.
Meanwhile, limited testing around the state showed that 1 in 9 people complaining of flu-like sickness who were tested actually contracted the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu.
Director of Public Health Dr. Jose Montero expects a greater percentage of people with influenza-like illness will test positive for swine flu later this year.
"As the season goes and more flu is around, that number will go up or should go up," he said.
The state tested respiratory samples from 183 people with flu-like symptoms from Oct. 4 to Oct. 20. Results confirmed 21 of those tested -- 11 percent -- had the flu, all the H1N1 strain.
"Flu-like symptoms doesn't mean that you have the flu," Montero said.
Nationwide, 37.5 percent of all people with flu-like symptoms who were tested in mid-October had contracted the flu. And all cases that were laboratory-tested specifically for the H1N1 strain tested positive during the week ending Oct. 17, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The six New England states reported only 9 percent testing positive for swine flu.
During a year's worth of testing through Oct. 3, New Hampshire had 772 confirmed flu cases out of about 2,400 analyzed samples taken from people with flu-like illness. H1N1 accounted for 335 confirmed flu cases -- representing 43 percent of all positive flu cases and about 14 percent of all people tested.
Treatment and response
<text>No matter what type of flu, the recommended treatment is similar: Stay home until 24 hours after your fever breaks. "It really doesn't do anything different to the management of cases, whether we confirm them as H1N1 or not," Montero said.</text>
People who contracted a flu-like illness should not assume it was H1N1 and think they are now immune. "I'm recommending everybody we diagnose with an influenza-like illness should get the (H1N1) vaccine," said Jack Turco, director of the Dartmouth College Health Service.
In other flu developments:
--New Hampshire received about 10,000 H1N1 vaccine doses last week and expected around 15,000 this week. Pregnant women, children with chronic conditions and health-care workers with direct patient contact will receive priority, Montero said.
--Dartmouth College reported 33 new flu-like cases for the week ending Oct. 18, down from 65 new cases the previous week. There were 104 cases for the week ending Oct. 4.
--Nashua school superintendent Mark Conrad told parents via the school Web site that administrators "are now seeing an increase in absenteeism in our elementary schools and anticipate an increase in absenteeism in all our schools in the next three to four weeks as the flu season progresses and those who contract flu increases."
--Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon vaccinated a record number -- more than 6,000 people -- for seasonal flu last Sunday.
--President Obama declared the swine-flu outbreak a national emergency, allowing states to ignore certain federal requirements should, for instance, they need to segregate flu patients from the general hospital population.
Bow outbreak
<text>In Bow, superintendent Dean Cascadden said 163 high school students, 150 middle schoolers and 65 elementary students were absent Thursday, the week's peak. Each school typically gets about 20 absent kids.</text>
"We were thinking at the height 25 to 30 percent of the population was out," Cascadden said. He said he has heard of one laboratory-confirmed case of H1N1 in a middle school student.
"We never talked about closing school at all," he said. "This hasn't hit our staff that hard."
Students typically missed three to five days.
Ann Bouchard, president of the Bow Parent Teacher Organization, praised administrators and nurses.
"Most people are not taking the risk of sending sick children to school to spread the illness," Bouchard said. Middle school teachers weren't giving out homework last Wednesday to Friday "because of the large number of students out," she said.
Bouchard said her two daughters "don't want to go to school because nobody's there."
At Dartmouth, Turco said the college is a surveillance site where the health center randomly swabs some people suffering flu-like illnesses and sends the samples to the state lab for testing. Less than 30 students have been tested and "a little over 50 percent have been positive" for H1N1, he said. No students have needed hospitalization.
Montero said rapid tests that doctors administered to some patients recently have provided false test results.
Dr. Robert Nordgren, associate medical director at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Manchester, said people still have time before the seasonal flu typically hits in the late-fall and winter months.
"Anyone who gets the seasonal flu vaccine now or in November and possibly early December probably will be protected when the seasonal flu hits our community," Nordgren said.
People are more at risk now for H1N1, since that flu has been circulating since spring and very few have received the vaccination because of production delays.
"If someone got the H1N1 virus today, they could in February, for example, get the seasonal flu," Nordgren said.
High rate in state
<text>Google, which analyzes Internet searches to estimate flu activity, compiled data depicting international and state-by-state "flu trends." This year, New Hampshire hit a "high" rating on Sept. 27. Last flu season, the state first reached "high" on Feb. 8, 2009.</text>
The CDC last week reported widespread influenza activity in 46 states, including New Hampshire.
But several employers around the state reported no widespread flu outbreak.
"Appears like we have not had much illness at this point," said Sarah O'Hare, spokeswoman for manufacturing corporation Freudenberg-NOK, which has four New Hampshire plants. Its Ashland locale had two influenza-like illness out of 90 workers. Bristol had one worker and one worker's child out with flu-like illness a few weeks back. The Manchester locale had one worker with suspected flu.
Restaurants and hotels employ a large part-time workforce, giving workers flexibility to make up time if they are out sick with the flu, according to Mike Somers, president and CEO of the New Hampshire Lodging & Restaurant Association.:applause:
"The biggest issue we face is the economy and not the flu," Somers said.
http://www.unionleader.com/article....rticleId=4f896336-071c-43cc-b34f-466d1668762d
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009
Almost one quarter of Bow's public-school students were absent Thursday, with most of the 378 absentees reporting flu-like illnesses in what the state's public health director called the largest outbreak in a New Hampshire school district this year.
Meanwhile, limited testing around the state showed that 1 in 9 people complaining of flu-like sickness who were tested actually contracted the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu.
Director of Public Health Dr. Jose Montero expects a greater percentage of people with influenza-like illness will test positive for swine flu later this year.
"As the season goes and more flu is around, that number will go up or should go up," he said.
The state tested respiratory samples from 183 people with flu-like symptoms from Oct. 4 to Oct. 20. Results confirmed 21 of those tested -- 11 percent -- had the flu, all the H1N1 strain.
"Flu-like symptoms doesn't mean that you have the flu," Montero said.
Nationwide, 37.5 percent of all people with flu-like symptoms who were tested in mid-October had contracted the flu. And all cases that were laboratory-tested specifically for the H1N1 strain tested positive during the week ending Oct. 17, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The six New England states reported only 9 percent testing positive for swine flu.
During a year's worth of testing through Oct. 3, New Hampshire had 772 confirmed flu cases out of about 2,400 analyzed samples taken from people with flu-like illness. H1N1 accounted for 335 confirmed flu cases -- representing 43 percent of all positive flu cases and about 14 percent of all people tested.
Treatment and response
<text>No matter what type of flu, the recommended treatment is similar: Stay home until 24 hours after your fever breaks. "It really doesn't do anything different to the management of cases, whether we confirm them as H1N1 or not," Montero said.</text>
People who contracted a flu-like illness should not assume it was H1N1 and think they are now immune. "I'm recommending everybody we diagnose with an influenza-like illness should get the (H1N1) vaccine," said Jack Turco, director of the Dartmouth College Health Service.
In other flu developments:
--New Hampshire received about 10,000 H1N1 vaccine doses last week and expected around 15,000 this week. Pregnant women, children with chronic conditions and health-care workers with direct patient contact will receive priority, Montero said.
--Dartmouth College reported 33 new flu-like cases for the week ending Oct. 18, down from 65 new cases the previous week. There were 104 cases for the week ending Oct. 4.
--Nashua school superintendent Mark Conrad told parents via the school Web site that administrators "are now seeing an increase in absenteeism in our elementary schools and anticipate an increase in absenteeism in all our schools in the next three to four weeks as the flu season progresses and those who contract flu increases."
--Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon vaccinated a record number -- more than 6,000 people -- for seasonal flu last Sunday.
--President Obama declared the swine-flu outbreak a national emergency, allowing states to ignore certain federal requirements should, for instance, they need to segregate flu patients from the general hospital population.
Bow outbreak
<text>In Bow, superintendent Dean Cascadden said 163 high school students, 150 middle schoolers and 65 elementary students were absent Thursday, the week's peak. Each school typically gets about 20 absent kids.</text>
"We were thinking at the height 25 to 30 percent of the population was out," Cascadden said. He said he has heard of one laboratory-confirmed case of H1N1 in a middle school student.
"We never talked about closing school at all," he said. "This hasn't hit our staff that hard."
Students typically missed three to five days.
Ann Bouchard, president of the Bow Parent Teacher Organization, praised administrators and nurses.
"Most people are not taking the risk of sending sick children to school to spread the illness," Bouchard said. Middle school teachers weren't giving out homework last Wednesday to Friday "because of the large number of students out," she said.
Bouchard said her two daughters "don't want to go to school because nobody's there."
At Dartmouth, Turco said the college is a surveillance site where the health center randomly swabs some people suffering flu-like illnesses and sends the samples to the state lab for testing. Less than 30 students have been tested and "a little over 50 percent have been positive" for H1N1, he said. No students have needed hospitalization.
Montero said rapid tests that doctors administered to some patients recently have provided false test results.
Dr. Robert Nordgren, associate medical director at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Manchester, said people still have time before the seasonal flu typically hits in the late-fall and winter months.
"Anyone who gets the seasonal flu vaccine now or in November and possibly early December probably will be protected when the seasonal flu hits our community," Nordgren said.
People are more at risk now for H1N1, since that flu has been circulating since spring and very few have received the vaccination because of production delays.
"If someone got the H1N1 virus today, they could in February, for example, get the seasonal flu," Nordgren said.
High rate in state
<text>Google, which analyzes Internet searches to estimate flu activity, compiled data depicting international and state-by-state "flu trends." This year, New Hampshire hit a "high" rating on Sept. 27. Last flu season, the state first reached "high" on Feb. 8, 2009.</text>
The CDC last week reported widespread influenza activity in 46 states, including New Hampshire.
But several employers around the state reported no widespread flu outbreak.
"Appears like we have not had much illness at this point," said Sarah O'Hare, spokeswoman for manufacturing corporation Freudenberg-NOK, which has four New Hampshire plants. Its Ashland locale had two influenza-like illness out of 90 workers. Bristol had one worker and one worker's child out with flu-like illness a few weeks back. The Manchester locale had one worker with suspected flu.
Restaurants and hotels employ a large part-time workforce, giving workers flexibility to make up time if they are out sick with the flu, according to Mike Somers, president and CEO of the New Hampshire Lodging & Restaurant Association.:applause:
"The biggest issue we face is the economy and not the flu," Somers said.
http://www.unionleader.com/article....rticleId=4f896336-071c-43cc-b34f-466d1668762d