school closure for swine flu guidelines

[HonestRN]

"Federal health officials, releasing guidelines Friday, suggested that closure of schools this fall be rare. "There are measures we can take to protect the students, protect the staff, and to allow learning to continue," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A key change in the new guidance is that people with H1N1 should stay out of school for 24 hours after their fever is gone, regardless of whether they are taking medication such as Tamiflu. Before, the recommendation was seven days, Frieden said."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/07/swine.flu.h1n1.schools/index.html

I must admit I am surprised and disappointed

[luvschoolnursing, LPN]

If they are not testing for H1N1, will we ever know how widespread it is? Or does it make financial sense not to waste resources on testing? Just asking, I don't know.

[HonestRN]

wow! didn't read that. like i said, i'm not sure where i heard that rationale about keeping the schools open. what about the little ones? many parents can't take off work for extended periods of time-would the day cares be open? i guess if we get hit hard, there will be no easy solution. i'm just thinking that if a parent needs to take off a week with a sick child, then they get ill and need to take off a week for their own illness, this could really be trouble for some families.

i'll be back to school in a couple weeks and i hope the "wash your hands, use good respiratory etiquette" helps. i'm thinking this may be a long winter.

here is the original post by indigo girl:

originally posted by http://www.ft.com

an uncharacteristic quiet hangs over buenos aires's usually bustling commercial districts as swine

flu

grips the argentine capital.

restaurants, shopping centres, hotels and theatres all report falling sales as deaths from h1n1

infection

across the country reached 65.

businesses geared towards children are reporting the most severe impact. cinemas reported a fall in ticket receipts of more than 33 per cent in a week. internet cafés, sports centres, discotheques and theatres have seen a similar fall-off rate.

in the district of san isidro, children under 18 have been banned from entering shopping centres until july 9

. nightclubs and

gymnasiums

have also closed their doors temporarily.

provincial governments are now following suit.

mendoza, san juan and corrientes have ordered casinos and cinemas to remain shut for a fortnight. argentina's theatre association has also decided to close box offices for 10 days.

travel companies

are also reporting widespread cancellations as an increasing number of countries issue

health

warnings against visiting argentina.

argentines themselves are holding off travelling as well. school graduates are being requested not to

travel

to the ski town of bariloche, a popular end-of-term destination, for at least a fortnight.

pharmacies

are one of the few industries to see sales on the rise.

stocks of masks and alcohol gel are almost sold out across the country, leading some consumers to cross into neighbouring chile and uruguay to obtain them.

the antiviral tamiflu medicine is the top seller. "supplies are still available, but the problem is that we sell out in a flash," said a

pharmacist

in buenos aires's busy palermo neighbourhood.

if the flu

epidemic

lasts for a month, the impact on the economy could amount to 0.5-0.6 per cent of gdp, equivalent to over 6.1bn pesos ($1.6bn, £990m), according to estimates by local analyst firm orlando ferreres.

cristina fernandez de kirchner, the president, has so far preferred to leave provincial and municipal governments to determine their own responses to the outbreak. to date, 11 of the country's 23 provinces have declared a state of emergency, in addition to buenos aires.

the health ministry finally unveiled a 1bn-peso package of measures at the end of last week, most of which was meant for the distribution of tamiflu.

other measures include the introduction of paid leaves for pregnant women. civil servants with young children have also been granted time off as schools close their doors on wednesday, a week ahead of scheduled holidays.

around 45,000 civil servants are off work in buenos aires, while private companies are reporting absentee levels of up to 15 per cent.

(hat tip pfi/pixie)

[dcampbell]

With many people afraid of losing their jobs in this economy, there will be many parents that will send their kids to school sick anyway. How many nurses can affford to miss that much work, especially those with several children, due to the flu? We are already "counseled" about missing work due to regular illnesses.

[indigo girl]

Sebelius: Closing schools wouldn't ward off virus

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hjdCHrP82YTFser5vD6CzTK1az6wD9A9T4L81

Here is a message from your govt via HHS Secretary Sebelius with advice on what we should do to get ready.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday that a massive school closing wouldn't stop the spread of the swine flu virus, saying vaccinations must be the defense against a menace that one report said could infect up to half of the population.

"What we know is that we have the virus right now traveling around the United States," Sebelius said in a nationally broadcast interview. "And having children in a learning situation is beneficial ... What we learned last spring is that shutting a school down sort of pre-emptively doesn't stop the virus from spreading."

Sebelius appeared on NBC's "Today" show one day after a special presidential advisory panel presented a grim report to the Obama White House, saying among other things that a "plausible scenario" for the United States later this year is wide-scale infections, possibly 30,000 to 90,000 deaths, mostly among young children and young adults, and perhaps as many as 300,000 sick enough to require intensive care unit treatment at hospitals.

Asked in the interview what people should do while awaiting the arrival of a vaccine, with first supplies likely by October but most not until the Thanksgiving season, Sebelius said: "I think it's important that people begin to anticipate that we will have a vaccine. We think it's likely that we're going to need two shots for the vaccine."

She said people should plan ahead for this, particularly those with pre-existing medical conditions, pregnant women and health care industry workers. Sebelius said federal health authorities also are recommending that people should immediately get their regular "seasonal" flu vaccine to bolster their health for the scenario yet to play out later this year regarding the swine flu virus.

"Seasonal flu vaccine is ready at the beginning of September," she said. "We want the population that is most at risk to begin their seasonal flu vaccine now."

Sebelius said on MSNBC that the government has asked drug makers to accelerate the manufacture of antiviral medication that could be administered intravenously to hospitalized swine flu victims.

The fall resurgence in swine flu could occur as early as September, with the beginning of the school term, and the peak infection may occur in mid-October.

So the resurgence could occur by September, with a peak in mid-October, and most of the vaccine will not be available until Thanksgiving or so. Is that just the first shot? Probably, so then you need a second shot some 6 weeks later, maybe 4 weeks, but, the peak is in mid-October.

Not to worry, though, people should begin to anticipate the vaccine. That's what you should do, and get your seasonal flu shot ASAP, and don't forget to plan...

Oh, how I miss the former HHS Secretary, Mike Leavitt. We would have gotten the facts realistically presented, even the unpleasant ones. We are adults. We can take it our information straight up, thank you.

What she should have said but did not, is that school closures are not designed to stop the virus. School closure is a mitigation strategy that is effective in slowing down the spread. Does she know the difference? I think so, but it is expensive and very inconvenient to close schools. So, the decision was made not to even try to slow down spread for the few weeks needed to effectively immunize the group most likely to cause the spread.

Mitigation strategies can be very effective as a short term strategy, for example in the situation we have before us this fall. We know approximately when the vaccine will be available, and when kids will most likely have developed antibodies. We could have delayed the spread of the virus for that long if there was the will to do so.They could also have forbidden kids access to public gatherings such as malls like Argentina did. This was do-able.

The IV medication that she is talking about could be Relenza which is usually given by inhaling it but has recently been given successfully via the IV route. Or she could be talking about Peramivir which has not been approved yet. It would be nice if the reporter would have said exactly what the drug was in this article. All of these drugs are neuraminidase inhibitors, and attack the virus in much the same way. It would be great if they could develop a drug that worked against the flu in some other way as well.

[indigo girl]

Going by Typical H1N1 Symtoms in Kids Not Enough: Lancet

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/going-by-typical-h1n1-symptoms-in-kids-not-enough-lancet/507127/

A study in the British medical journal Lancet has found that children suffering from swine flu may not show signs typical of the virus but report other symptoms which doctors must watch out for.

The observations have been made by doctors in Birmingham, UK, after studying the first wave of paediatric admissions for H1N1.

The study suggests that instead of looking for the typical symtoms of swine flu like fever, cough and a running nose before recommending a test, doctors could go in for the same if a child has complaints like an earache and swollen eyes and suffers from underlying illnesses.

The Birmingham doctors found that besides cough, fever and running nose, many children who were later diagnosed with H1N1 came with symptoms like ear ache, photophobia, chest pain, swollen eyes and blood in vomit.

The doctors reviewed 78 of 89 children who tested positive and were admitted to hospitals between June 5 and July 4, 2009, at paediatric hospitals in Birmingham and London. The data showed that 29 of 71 patients did not fulfil the H1N1 influenza case definition as described by the UK's Health Protection Agency (HPA) and other agencies. This includes a temperature of at least 38°C or a history of fever and cough, sore throat, limb or joint pain, headache, vomiting or diarrhoea, or a life-threatening illness.

(hat tip flutrackers/pathfinder)

[indigo girl]

Modesto, California

http://www.modbee.com/local/story/832491.html

She died of an unknown cause in the hospital? They will have to do an autopsy. How sad for her family this is. She was just 19.

The swine flu virus may have claimed a 19-year-old Modesto elementary school employee this morning, officials said.

Great Valley Academy, a charter school at 3200 Tully Road, remained open though some worried parents took children out of school and administrators sent home about a dozen others with flu-like symptoms.

Because the 520-student school has not seen irregular absentee rates, it will continue running as normal and probably would not shut if testing proves that the H1N1 virus killed the young woman.

Sickness caused Amanda Delarosa of Modesto to miss some work last week, the first week of the school year, principal Cy Cole said. She is the daughter of a school secretary and worked in Great Valley Academy's before- and after-school child care.

She was still ill on Monday and went home after only a few minutes, Cole said. Delarosa died this morning at Kaiser Modesto Medical Center of an unknown cause, Stanislaus County Deputy Coroner Elizabeth Hawthorne said.

(hat tip flutrackers/JimO]