Three Camden County schools see spike in students reporting flu symptoms

[GennieF]

Three Camden County schools see spike in students reporting flu symptoms

by Ellen Robinson
Published: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 9:29 AM EDT


The long lines of feverish children stacking up outside of school nurse stations across the county look more like what officials expect to see in February rather than in August, says Elaine Smiley, director of Camden County Schools Health Services.

So far there are no confirmed cases of swine flu in any Camden County schools, but the general flu, known has Type A Influenza, has already taken a strong hold in some schools. The alarmingly high number of children that are experiencing symptoms this early in the school year has officials bracing for a difficult flu season, according to Smiley.

Camden County Schools posted a message online and the most impacted schools sent letters home on Monday encouraging parents to keep sick children away from school. Inside the schools, nurses are putting an emphasis on good hand-washing techniques and other standard prevention measures in an effort to help curb the further spread of illnesses throughout the school system.

"The number of children being sent home is not typical for this time of year. This is looking more like what we see during the peak of flu season," said Smiley. "We've had a few confirmed cases of the flu, so as with any illness, we know there are more cases out there than what has actually been confirmed."

On Monday, 26 Camden Middle School students were sent home with fevers of 100 degrees Farenheight or higher. The number of children being affected with flu-like symptoms has triggered an investigation by the Camden County Health Department.

"They are looking into the cases to see if there is a common ground that can be pinpointed with the spread of the illnesses that we are seeing at Camden Middle," Smiley said. "There seems to be illness spreading in the student populations in the northern populations, but for some reason not at Woodbine Elementary School. It's been quiet so far up there."

A total of 122 Camden County High School students visited the school nurse's office and several of those were sent home because they were displaying flu-like symptoms on Monday, she said.

There are also two elementary schools - Mamie Lou Gross Elementary and St. Marys Elementary - that reported sending home a high number of students home after they were confirmed to have flu-like symptoms. Mamie Lou Gross Elementary off Harrietts Bluff Road has been reporting fevers and St. Marys Elementary students are suffering from stomach symptoms.

"When I spoke with the office at Mamie Lou Gross Elementary, they had 12 students waiting to see the school nurse at that moment," Smiley said. "There have been a lot of fevers hitting these schools very hard."

The policy for schools is to send children home when they are experiencing a fever of 100 degrees or higher. Smiley said the 100-degree mark typically indicates a person is contagious.

Smiley reminds parents to watch for flu-like symptoms to determine if children should be kept home from school. Common symptoms include fevers of 100 degrees F or higher, lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. The symptoms for the H1N1 virus, commonly known as the swine flu, are very similar to those for the more common strain of influenza that has been confirmed in several schools.

The Camden County Board of Education statement posted on the Camden County Schools Web site encourages parents to keep children home from school for at least 24 hours after a fever has subsided without the use of any fever-reducing medications.

For more information, contact Camden County Schools Health Services at (912) 729-4554.

http://www.tribune-georgian.com/articles/2009/08/19/news/top_stories/1topstory8.19.txt

 

[GennieF]

Re: Three Camden County schools see spike in students reporting flu symptoms

Swine flu outbreak impacts Camden County schools
Parents told to keep sick kids at home until fever is gone

* By Gordon Jackson
* Story updated at 11:06 AM on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009


ST. MARYS - An outbreak of what health officials suspect is the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, is hitting Camden County schools.

Elaine Smiley, health systems coordinator for the school district, said about 10 percent of the estimated 1,000 Camden Middle School enrollment was absent Tuesday from the outbreak.

School nurses have also seen an increase in children who have flu-like symptoms, including fevers of more than 100 degrees, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing, she said. Other symptoms include runny nose, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Smiley said she didn't have estimates available on how many students have missed classes since the outbreak.

School officials sent notes home with students Monday asking parents to keep their children home if they experience flu-like symptoms until they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication. Health officials estimate the disease runs its course in most children within five days.

The note also reminds parents to encourage their children to wash their hands often and cover coughs and sneezes as a way to prevent the spread of germs and illness. Health officials also recommend children be immunized when seasonal flu shots become available in the fall.

Smiley said parents have not been calling schools in large numbers, but Camden County Health Department officials say they have received many calls from residents with questions.

"It's not a typical flu season," said Debbie Melton, Camden County's nurse manager for the Health Department. "It seems widespread. We've getting a lot of calls."

Parents are told to keep their children home if they show symptoms and call their family physicians if they have questions.

"We tell them to treat them like they have a regular virus," she said. "The virus is pretty mild in most people. It's going to be a flu shot year."

gordon.jackson@jacksonville.com,

(912) 729-3672

http://www.jacksonville.com/news/ge...ne_flu_outbreak_impacts_camden_county_schools

 

[Jeremy]

Re: Three Camden County schools see spike in students reporting flu symptoms

Smiley said the 100-degree mark typically indicates a person is contagious.

Time for a little re-education.

 

[GennieF]

Re: Three Camden County schools see spike in students reporting flu symptoms

All of this is just extremely disheartening. I'm guessing then if does not have a fever (or less than their 100-degree mark), they're okay to stay in school? Ugh. Isn't it even listed on the CDC website that 10-40% do not exhibit fever?

 

[wotan]

Re: Three Camden County schools see spike in students reporting flu symptoms

I think this is actually Georgia, just north of the FL line:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...30.944636,-81.44165&spn=2.350771,4.850464&z=8

 

[GennieF]

Re: Three Camden County schools see spike in students reporting flu symptoms

Oops, sorry about that! Guess I posted too fast, I think I saw the second article first and had assumed because it was the Jacksonville newspaper that this was for Florida. One of the mods, please move this topic into the right place, thanks!

 

[HenryN]

Re: Three Camden County schools see spike in students reporting flu symptoms

I think this is actually Georgia, just north of the FL line:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...30.944636,-81.44165&spn=2.350771,4.850464&z=8

<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.recombinomics.com/News/08200901/H1N1_South_School.html">Commentary</a>

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Three Camden County schools see spike in students reporting flu symptoms

<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.recombinomics.com/News/08200901/H1N1_South_School.html">Commentary</a>

Commentary

Widespread Pandemic H1N1 School Outbreaks in Southern US

Recombinomics Commentary 22:15
August 20, 2009

A total of 122 Camden County High School students visited the school nurse's office and several of those were sent home because they were displaying flu-like symptoms on Monday, she said.

There are also two elementary schools - Mamie Lou Gross Elementary and St. Marys Elementary - that reported sending home a high number of students home after they were confirmed to have flu-like symptoms. Mamie Lou Gross Elementary off Harrietts Bluff Road has been reporting fevers and St. Marys Elementary students are suffering from stomach symptoms.

"When I spoke with the office at Mamie Lou Gross Elementary, they had 12 students waiting to see the school nurse at that moment," Smiley said. "There have been a lot of fevers hitting these schools very hard."

Elaine Smiley, health systems coordinator for the school district, said about 10 percent of the estimated 1,000 Camden Middle School enrollment was absent Tuesday from the outbreak.

School nurses have also seen an increase in children who have flu-like symptoms, including fevers of more than 100 degrees, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing, she said. Other symptoms include runny nose, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

The above comments describe large outbreaks of swine flu at the elementary, middle, and high school level of a school district in southern Georgia (see map). Although some officials have noted that many of the students were influenza A positive, but had not been swine flu confirmed, 99% of influenza A cases in the United States at this time of year are swine flu, and the symptoms described signal a large and widespread outbreak.

Outbreaks such as the one described above are usually associated with seasonal flu in the dead of winter, but these outbreaks began in the summer, right after the start of the new school year. Similar outbreaks are being described throughout the southern United States, where many schools have started a new school year (see map). Large outbreaks are expected nationwide, as students return to the school in the next few weeks.

Most schools are following CDC recommendations and remaining open, while offering guidance centered on keeping ill students at home. However, these guidelines are tightly linked to a fever, which is in the CDC H1N1 swine flu case definition. The association of fever with swine flu infections is tenuous, and some countries like Chile, are reporting 50% of patients without fever, even in more severe cases. Similarly, initial data from Mexico also noted that 30% of confirmed cases did not have a fever, raising concerns that these figures are low, and most infections have no or low fever.

The above figures are likely to be significant undercounts, because most physicians, as well as patients, associate a fever with flu. Thus, mild cases are unlikely to seek medical treatment, and those that do seek treatment are unlikely to be tested because of no fever. The CDC includes fever it the pandemic H1N1 case definition, so the frequency is high, but even with fever in the case definition, 7% of confirmed cases have no fever.

Thus, the policy of keeping schools open, and using fever as one of the key symptoms, may lead to extensive spread by patients who have low or no fever. Moreover, most of the students have mild illnesses, so they are not tested, which may allow important genetic changes to silent ly spread. One such change is H274Y, which confers Tamiflu resistance. Many of the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.recombinomics.com/News/08140901/H274Y_HK_More.html">confirmed</a> cases have <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.recombinomics.com/News/08150902/H274Y_SS_Confirmed.html">quickly</a> developed <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.recombinomics.com/News/08170901/H274Y_Fit_US.html">resistance</a>, raising concerns the H274Y is <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.recombinomics.com/News/08160901/H274Y_WHO_See_NOT.html">widespread</a>, but present as a minor species which is largely <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.recombinomics.com/News/08150902/H274Y_SS_Confirmed.html">undetected</a> in samples collected prior to Tamiflu treatment. Media reports described Tamiflu resistance in patients in <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.recombinomics.com/News/08040902/H274Y_TX_Spread.html">Texas</a> along the Mexican border, and such cases may be silently spreading, due in part to limited testing.

Thus, these initial outbreaks in multiple school districts across the south raises concerns that similar large outbreaks will be reported in northern regions, and worldwide, as the new school season begins nationwide.

.

 

[Mamabird]

Re: Three Camden County schools see spike in students reporting flu symptoms

I'm wondering if GS's South Carolina strain (a subset of CDC's variant i concensus) is at work here causing all the mischief.

This genetically unique bug has shown up in NY, England, Germany and Chile, and everyone here at FT knows what level of Swine Flu activity they have all had. Plus, if you look at the IFI activity in CDC Region 4, it is the only region that has consistently increased over the course of the last three months. Not a let up at all for some reason when most of the rest of the nation at least has seen decreasing ILI.

Some recent sequences would be nice from the Southeast.

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Three Camden County schools see spike in students reporting flu symptoms

Flu Symptoms Plague Camden Schools
Middle, High Schools Seeing High Absenteeism

POSTED: Tuesday, August 25, 2009
UPDATED: 4:14 pm EDT August 25, 2009


KINGSLAND, Ga. -- Dozens of Camden County middle and high school students came down with flu-like symptoms in the first two weeks of the school year.

Several students were sent home from school with notes from the school nurse since classes resumed on Aug. 5. They are being monitored and none have required hospitalization.

County health officials are awaiting test results to see if they were sick with the H1H1 strain -- the so-called Swine Flu.

There were two confirmed cases of swine flu in Camden County in July -- both children under the age of 10. There was also one confirmed case in neighboring Charlton County. That person was briefly hospitalized, then recovered at home.

School officials report a large number of absences from the illnesses, more than they recall an any other August. There are no plans to close schools, and the federal government said that massive school closings would not stop the spread of the virus.

Concern over swine flu is rising as a special presidential advisory panel said a "plausible scenario" could be anywhere from 30,000 to 90,00 deaths in the United States due to the H1N1 virus, and 20 to 40 percent of Americans could suffer swine flu symptoms.

Seasonal flu, in contrast, kills an estimated 36,000 people every year.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said a massive school closing would not stop the spread of the swine flu virus.

Sebelius also said the government expects to have 50 million doses of a H1N1 vaccine ready by mid-October and wants people to be ready.

"Hopefully we will have a mild presentation this fall" with limited cases of serious illness and few deaths," Sebelius said during a visit Monday to the CDC.


http://www.news4jax.com/news4georgia/20551041/detail.html

 

[Dark Horse]

More being sent home in Camden County

More being sent home in Camden County

CAMDEN COUNTY, GA -- The number of students being sent home from Camden County Schools has more than doubled since last week.

On Monday, school nurses saw 135 students with fever or flu-like symptoms, including 61 students just from the high school.

Due to the fact that kids are getting sick very early in the season and the illness is spreading quickly, the coastal health district is assuming the illness is H1N1, also called swine flu.

A spokesperson for the health district says not every case is being tested, but a couple of tests have confirmed the presence of H1N1.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/loca ... 54&catid=3