Commonground
Senior Moderator
Posted Oct 27, 2009 @ 11:40 PM
Raynham Health Agent Alan Perry reported two new cases of the H1N1 virus in Raynham. One of the victims is a child under age 5, the other an adult, Perry said during the Tuesday night meeting of the Board of Selectmen.
The news was sent to Perry from the state Department of Public Health and did not detail the condition of either person.
The news comes as the DPH announced a delay of a month or more in the distribution of the H1N1 vaccine to Massachusetts.
As of the end of last week, 300,000 doses of the vaccine had been shipped to the state. Most are the nasal vaccine to be administered to children under age 5 and other high risk groups.
The DPH announced in September that the vaccine administered with a syringe was expected to be widely available to school-age children by mid-November, but production delays pushed the shipment date to December and January.
?Part of the delay in the receipt of the vaccine was due to the stringent efforts that have been undertaken to insure the vaccine is both safe and effective,? said DPH Commissioner John Auerbach in the letter.
Perry and Board of Selectmen Chairman Donald McKinnon met with Marie Fahey, the head nurse for the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District, Tuesday afternoon in Bridgewater to talk about the vaccine and school health policy.
Despite a growing presence of the H1N1 virus, the meeting did not result in changes to the school?s health guidelines regarding the swine flu.
?The intention is not to close the schools,? Perry said.
Last week, the B-R School Board agreed to post the number of suspected flu cases and student absenteeism on the district?s Web site every Friday. Over 20 suspected flu cases have been reported in the B-R district in recent weeks. Due to a lack of testing, many additional cases have gone unreported, school officials said.
Parents of students have been asked to keep children with flu-like symptoms home from school until at least 24 hours after a fever has subsided without the aid of medicine.
Also on Tuesday, the St. Philomena School in Portsmouth, R.I. said medical officials are conducting an autopsy on the body of a 12-year-old student who died after coming down with flu-like symptoms.
As of Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta raised the classification for the presence of swine flu in Massachusetts from ?regional? to ?widespread.?
Forty-seven other states also share the ?widespread? designation, the highest alert level.
http://www.tauntongazette.com/news/x1914248450/Swine-flu-climbs-in-Raynham-as-vaccine-delayed
Raynham Health Agent Alan Perry reported two new cases of the H1N1 virus in Raynham. One of the victims is a child under age 5, the other an adult, Perry said during the Tuesday night meeting of the Board of Selectmen.
The news was sent to Perry from the state Department of Public Health and did not detail the condition of either person.
The news comes as the DPH announced a delay of a month or more in the distribution of the H1N1 vaccine to Massachusetts.
As of the end of last week, 300,000 doses of the vaccine had been shipped to the state. Most are the nasal vaccine to be administered to children under age 5 and other high risk groups.
The DPH announced in September that the vaccine administered with a syringe was expected to be widely available to school-age children by mid-November, but production delays pushed the shipment date to December and January.
?Part of the delay in the receipt of the vaccine was due to the stringent efforts that have been undertaken to insure the vaccine is both safe and effective,? said DPH Commissioner John Auerbach in the letter.
Perry and Board of Selectmen Chairman Donald McKinnon met with Marie Fahey, the head nurse for the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District, Tuesday afternoon in Bridgewater to talk about the vaccine and school health policy.
Despite a growing presence of the H1N1 virus, the meeting did not result in changes to the school?s health guidelines regarding the swine flu.
?The intention is not to close the schools,? Perry said.
Last week, the B-R School Board agreed to post the number of suspected flu cases and student absenteeism on the district?s Web site every Friday. Over 20 suspected flu cases have been reported in the B-R district in recent weeks. Due to a lack of testing, many additional cases have gone unreported, school officials said.
Parents of students have been asked to keep children with flu-like symptoms home from school until at least 24 hours after a fever has subsided without the aid of medicine.
Also on Tuesday, the St. Philomena School in Portsmouth, R.I. said medical officials are conducting an autopsy on the body of a 12-year-old student who died after coming down with flu-like symptoms.
As of Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta raised the classification for the presence of swine flu in Massachusetts from ?regional? to ?widespread.?
Forty-seven other states also share the ?widespread? designation, the highest alert level.
http://www.tauntongazette.com/news/x1914248450/Swine-flu-climbs-in-Raynham-as-vaccine-delayed