Flu Information

The flu bug seems to be hitting the area sooner than expected. We have been trying to keep students and parents informed about the flu and the precautions you can take. Unfortunately, we still have children coming to school with a temperature. The nurse has been sending those students home. Please do not send sick children to school. Wait at least 24 hours after the fever breaks.

The public health agencies have given us guidance that unless the number of sick students reaches 20% schools should remain open. This week we have been running about 85% attendance. But we are unsure how many have the flu, seasonal allergies, or other reasons for missing school. We will continue to monitor the situation.

Unfortunately the health agencies are not testing for the flu and are not keeping us up to date on the actual numbers of flu cases. I know that we must have some from the symptoms, but we have not been informed of any confirmed cases by the health department.

Fortunately, the symptoms do not appear to be very severe or long lasting. The symptoms we are seeing is a cough and temperature that lasts two or three days. This appears to be much milder than expected and from my visit with a physician the cases in the county are much milder than the seasonal flu and a little worse than a common cold. Once a child has had this they should have enough antibodies developed to prevent reoccurance.

A word of caution. If after the fever breaks and things are getting back to normal, continue to monitor your children. If they continue to cough seek medical attention, secondary conditions may exist.

For now we are taking precautions to keep our school functioning as usual. Here are a few things you can do to help.

· Teach your children to wash their hands often with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub. You can set a good example by doing this yourself. In order to kill viruses hand sanitizers must contain at least 60% alcohol. Caution should be exercised to prevent young children from consuming hand sanitizers

· Teach your children not to share personal items like drinks, food or unwashed utensils, and to cover their coughs and sneezes with tissues. Covering up their coughs or sneezes using the elbow, arm or sleeve instead of the hand when a tissue is unavailable.

· Know the signs and symptoms of the flu . Symptoms of the flu include fever (100 degrees F or greater), cough, sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, and feeling very tired. Some people may also vomit or have diarrhea.

· Keep sick children at home for at least 24 hours after they no longer have fever or do not have signs of fever, without using fever-reducing drugs. Keeping children with a fever at home will reduce the number of people who may get infected.

· Do not send children to school if they are sick. Any children who are determined to be sick while at school will be sent home.

For more information visit www.flu.gov or call 1-800-CDC-INFO. We will notify you of any additional changes to our school's strategy to prevent the spread of flu.


Sincerely,

Rod Priest