tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
A DARWIN school has denied there has been an outbreak of swine flu among their boarding students.
The NT News has been told four teenagers - three girls and a boy - have been diagnosed with swine flu at St John's College.
Several more students have been tested for the illness and one teacher is off sick and waiting for test results.
A staff member, who wished not to be named, said the first student was diagnosed with swine flu on Thursday. Three more were confirmed as having the H1N1 virus the next day.
All four Aboriginal boarding students have been placed in the infirmary with masks on, the staff member said.
The school employee was concerned that there had been no formal announcement about the outbreak.
"It is really distressing, it is a real health risk and none of the students, none of the staff have been informed," the employee said. "There has been a cone of silence but you can never hide things in a school for too long."
A staff member at the girl's dormitory denied the students were suffering from swine flu.
"It was only a precautionary thing," she said.
Principal Margot Morcombe declined to comment.
This year there has been 160 cases of swine flu in the NT, mostly in Darwin.
http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2010/11/22/195671_ntnews.html
The NT News has been told four teenagers - three girls and a boy - have been diagnosed with swine flu at St John's College.
Several more students have been tested for the illness and one teacher is off sick and waiting for test results.
A staff member, who wished not to be named, said the first student was diagnosed with swine flu on Thursday. Three more were confirmed as having the H1N1 virus the next day.
All four Aboriginal boarding students have been placed in the infirmary with masks on, the staff member said.
The school employee was concerned that there had been no formal announcement about the outbreak.
"It is really distressing, it is a real health risk and none of the students, none of the staff have been informed," the employee said. "There has been a cone of silence but you can never hide things in a school for too long."
A staff member at the girl's dormitory denied the students were suffering from swine flu.
"It was only a precautionary thing," she said.
Principal Margot Morcombe declined to comment.
This year there has been 160 cases of swine flu in the NT, mostly in Darwin.
http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2010/11/22/195671_ntnews.html