Swine flu hits Western student

[hornblower]

http://www.greenwichtime.com/ci_12423363?source=most_emailed

Sixth-grader joined class trip where others developed fever
By Lisa Chamoff
Staff Writer
Posted: 05/21/2009 08:20:28 PM EDT

School officials Thursday confirmed the first known case of swine flu in a student, a day after 130 middle school students were sent home from a field trip in northwest Connecticut when many became ill.

The student with swine flu, whose name was not released, is a Western Middle School sixth-grader who was sick last week and tested positive for the flu last Friday. The state Department of Public Health confirmed Thursday that it was the H1N1 strain of flu that has been linked to at least 10 U.S. deaths and has closed more than 20 schools New York City.

The student, who had a mild case, was treated with antiviral drugs over the weekend, and then went on the five-day trip Monday to Nature's Classroom in Colebrook. The district was not aware that the child had been sick, Superintendent of Schools Betty Sternberg said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.

On Wednesday, parents of 19 children at Nature's Classroom who had fevers were told to bring them home. An additional 36 students complained of symptoms ranging from minor headaches to fever, and all students returned to Greenwich Wednesday night.

District officials advised parents of sick children to have them seen by their doctor before returning to school. The district did not close any schools, based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which discourages school closures unless "there is a magnitude of faculty or student absenteeism that interferes with the school."

Sternberg said 166 students, or slighty more than 30 percent, were absent from Western Middle School Thursday. Officials didn't know how many students at other schools were absent. Sternberg said the district couldn't determine which students were ill.

District spokeswoman Kim Eves said it was too early to tell whether the district administration would consider closing any school if a large number of students or staff did not show up today.

"At this point, we're taking this as it comes," Eves said.

The district knows of eight students who were tested for flu at Greenwich Hospital and the tests came back negative, Sternberg said.

"Numerous people have been tested through the Emergency Department and pediatric offices," Dr. James Sabetta, director of infectious diseases at Greenwich Hospital, said in a statement. "We're assisting the caregivers in Greenwich, the school system and the local and state departments of health in trying to definitively diagnose the situation at the school. We have specimens going to the state to see if we have confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus."

Tom Mahoney, director of the Office for Special Services at the town health department, said the student who tested positive for swine flu may not have been the source of the illnesses in the other students.

"It could be a coincidence," Mahoney said. "It could be any number of things that they experienced. They could have relatives or other friends who are ill. They could have eaten something that made them uncomfortable."

Many parents were frustrated by the district's response to the outbreak, saying they should have closed the school. They criticized communication, saying parents of fifth-graders at Glenville School, who share a wing with Western sixth-graders while Glenville is under construction, were not told about the illnesses and only learned about them from media reports.

Eves said the district acted as swiftly as possible.

While the district posted information on its Web site that evening, the information came too late in the day to send home letters, she said, adding that the district does not have e-mail addresses for every parent in the district.

"In terms of when we were able to confirm the facts Wednesday, we had to rush and prioritize which parents to get the information to," said Eves. "There wasn't any way to get hard information out to (the rest of the) parents."

Celia Fernandez drove up to Colebrook Wednesday to pick up her son Carlos, who had a headache and a low-grade fever. She said she was happy with the response to the situation.

"I was very pleased with the teachers up at Nature's Classroom," said Fernandez, president of Western Middle School's PTA. "They were very proactive. They were very good with my son. I felt like someone was caring for him."

-- Staff Writer Colin Gustafson contributed to this report.

-- Staff Writer Lisa Chamoff can be reached at lisa.chamoff@scni.com or 625-4439.

 

[thebes]

Re: Swine flu hits Western student

Continuing to spread in Greenwich...

Preschool closed by fluBy Colin Gustafson
Staff Writer
Posted: 05/28/2009 09:03:30 PM EDT


Gateway Preschool has closed because of suspected swine flu infection.

As public schools remain open despite rising swine flu infections, a private day care center in Pemberwick will stay closed until Monday, after nearly the entire staff called out sick this week amid concerns about another outbreak of the virus.

Preschool administrators decided to shutter The Gateway School, an all-day childcare center, 2 Chapel St., for the entire week Tuesday morning, after 11 of the 12 staffers said they would be absent from work.

Since then, four teachers and four students have tested positive for the flu, and are awaiting confirmation from the state Department of Public Health on whether the flu strain is in fact the H1N1 virus, the school said.

Six of the sick employees and students are from Greenwich and two are from Stamford, according to Beth Tanner, preschool director for Family Centers, the Greenwich-based nonprofit that runs Gateway.

So far, she said, eight staffers have reported flu-like symptoms and several parents have reported that their children have been suffering from fevers and vomiting spells since being pulled out of the school, which serves 53 children, ages 2-5.

The state's test results for the preschool were still pending Thursday evening -- even as the state health department confirmed 16 new cases of swine flu in town, including 15 new infections at Western Middle School. That updated tally Thursday showed the total number of confirmed H1N1 cases in Greenwich doubling since Wednesday, when a total of 16 cases had been confirmed, including 11 students at Western.

None of the Gateway students who tested positive for the flu this week have siblings at Western, though several of the preschoolers without any apparent symptoms do, Tanner said.

In closing the preschool for the week, she cited Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that recommend closure only if absentee rates among students or staff are so high that a school cannot function.

"(With so many staff members out), we decided, with a heavy heart, that we wouldn't be able to safely staff the school," Tanner said.

The closure will cause some academic disruptions at the pre-school, which offers year-round instruction in basic arithmetic, "reading readiness" and social skills development, Tanner said.

"Obviously we're disappointed that we interrupted the consistency of the program," Tanner continued. "Young children learn most effectively within rituals and consistent practices, and this week off will definitely have an impact on them."

At Western, meanwhile, public school officials said they plan to continue holding classes, citing guidance from both state health officials and the CDC guidelines, despite opposition from public school parents who have kept their children home out of fears of exposure to H1N1.

The CDC guidelines regarding school closure are the same for K-12 schools and day care centers, said agency spokesman Tom Skinner.

Still, some Gateway parents said they were pleased with the decision to err on the side of caution and close the school, particularly because the students are younger and may be more vulnerable to flu infections than middle schoolers, they said.

"I think the situation is a little more serious when you're dealing with these younger kids," said Laura Marino, whose sons, Marco, 4, and Zachary, 5, are out sick from the preschool with the flu. "They're a little smaller, and they don't always know how to tell you when they have symptoms."

However, Marino also said she believes the panic about swine flu, at any age level, has been overblown: "I feel like people have gone completely off the deep end with this," she said. "It's a flu -- just like every other flu in the winter."

Since being closed, the preschool has been cleaned and sterilized, according Bill Brucker, communications director for Family Centers.

Across Connecticut, 47 new cases of H1N1 were confirmed by state health officials Thursday, bringing the total statewide count to 196 with the majority of infections -- 134 -- in Fairfield County.

Health officials said the number of confirmed cases represents only a fraction of the likely number of cases in the state because many persons with mild symptoms do not seek care from a doctor or hospital but recover at home.

"We expect to see it higher," town Health Director Caroline Calderone Baisley said.

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