| First Case of Swine Flu Reported in County School |
By: Evan Jones, Banner Editor
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Posted: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 9:50 am
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Lake County had its first reported case of the H1N1 “swine” flu with a parent advising school officials that a pre-school student at Lara Kendall in Ridgely had been diagnosed with the illness on Friday.
“The parent told the teacher that it was swine flu but as far as an official diagnosis from health officials, we don’t have one,” said Amy Floyd, director of Lake County schools.
“According to health department officials, it is now in all counties,” Floyd said.
“At this stage, it is one case and I don’t think we have an epidemic at all,” she added.
She said school officials have been in contact with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and state health officials.
Floyd said there is no set number of absences or percentages for local schools to be closed. “That is strictly a local call, too,” she added.
Precautions are being taken at all three schools.
Bret Johnson, supervisor of attendance and director of safe schools, said the central office has received some calls from concerned parents since the case was reported.
The three respective schools have instituted some additional precautions.
“We are educating the kids to wash their hands frequently,” said Johnson. “And not to drink after each other.
“In the classroom we are doing routine cleaning. We monitor attendance daily to see if we have any spikes (in absentees).
“We call home for every absent child in the system to see why he or she is absent. We are basically doing what the CDC and the state recommend.”
Like people, pigs can get influenza (flu), but swine flu viruses aren’t the same as human flu viruses. Swine flu doesn’t often infect people, and the rare human cases that have occurred in the past have mainly affected people who had direct contact with pigs. But the current “swine flu” outbreak is different. It’s caused by a new swine flu virus that has changed in ways that allow it to spread from person to person -- and it’s happening among people who haven’t had any contact with pigs.
That makes it a human flu virus. To distinguish it both from flu viruses that infect mainly pigs and from the seasonal influenza A H1N1 viruses that have been in circulation for many years, the CDC calls the virus “novel influenza A (H1N1) virus” and the World Health Organization calls it “pandemic (H1N1) 2009.” The CDC calls swine flu illness “H1N1 flu” and the World Health Organization calls it “pandemic influenza A (H1N1).”
Symptoms of swine flu are like regular flu symptoms and include fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, body aches, headache, chills, and fatigue. Many people with swine flu have had diarrhea and vomiting. Nearly everyone with flu has at least two of these symptoms. But these symptoms can also be caused by many other conditions. That means that you and your doctor can’t know, just based on your symptoms, if you’ve got swine flu. Health care professionals may offer a rapid flu test, although a negative result doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have the flu.
Like seasonal flu, pandemic swine flu can cause neurologic symptoms in children. These events are rare, but, as cases associated with seasonal flu have shown, they can be very severe and often fatal. Symptoms include seizures or changes in mental status (confusion or sudden cognitive or behavioral changes). It’s not clear why these symptoms occur, although they may be caused by Reye’s syndrome. Reye’s syndrome usually occurs in children with a viral illness who have taken aspirin -- something that should always be avoided.
Only lab tests can definitively show whether you’ve got swine flu. State health departments can do these tests. But given the large volume of samples coming in to state labs, these tests are being reserved for patients with severe flu symptoms. Currently, doctors are reserving antiviral drugs for people with or at risk of severe influenza. |
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