Schools prepare for flu season

This winter, the problem is compounded by worries about bird flu, also known as avian influenza, a strain of infection that has killed birds in Asia and parts of Europe and killed 68 people in Asia who came into direct contact with sick birds. No cases of bird flu have occurred in the United States.

However, there is the possibility of a pandemic, a global outbreak of disease that occurs when a new influenza virus appears in humans that causes serious illness and spreads easily from person to person. The pandemic of 1918 killed approximately 40 million people worldwide. About 1 million people perished in the most recent pandemic in 1968.

The White House has created a National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza, which outlines steps federal, state, and local governments; private industry; and individual citizens can take to prepare for and respond to a pandemic. (See www.whitehouse.gov.)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is preparing a checklist and toolkit to help schools prepare. NSBA has provided input to the CDC, and the materials will be available on NSBA’s school health website, www.nsba.org/schoolhealth.  

Some states and school districts have taken a proactive stance and developed comprehensive plans in case of a pandemic outbreak.

Maryland State Superintendent Nancy Grasmick convened a state­wide meeting in August of local school superintendents and public health officers to begin preparing for an eventual flu pandemic.

“Schools should have such plans because they probably will be the first site where something is noticed, and they need to know what to be on the lookout for to alert the health department,” says Brenda Greene, director of school health programs at NSBA.

“The communications system between schools and health agencies needs to be established very well so that there is two-way communication,” she says.

School officials shouldn’t be alarmed about the prospect of avian flu spreading to the United States, Green says. “We should be concerned that good practices are in place to prevent any kind of communicable disease.”

The same precautions that should be in place to prevent the spread of the common cold also should be directed at preventing avian flu, Greene says. “The number-one priority is hand washing and hand sanitizing when necessary. This can’t be underscored enough.”

Jack O’Connell, the California superintendent of public instruction, launched a “Wash Your Hands” campaign in November to help students at the 9,000 schools in his state protect themselves against colds and the flu.

O’Connell and the California Department of Education are working with the state Department of Health Services to make the public aware of the simple steps they can take to protect their health. In addition to washing hands before eating and after going to the rest room, O’Connell urged students to wash their hands long enough to sing “Jingle Bells” and cover their mouths whenever they sneeze or cough.

Greene adds that school officials should make sure that there are tissues in the classroom; students are urged to avoid touching their eyes, nose, or mouth; and that parents are informed of flu symptoms -- fever, headache, chills, body aches, tiredness, dry cough, sore throat, and nasal congestion.

According to the CDC, “nearly 22 million school days are lost each year to the common cold alone.”

Two years ago, the Bacon Academy in Colchester, Conn., closed briefly after 300 students, more than one-third of the student body, and 17 faculty members called in sick with flu-like symptoms.

The school took measures to reduce germs, including having night custodians clean chairs and desks with bleach. “We organized an emergency preparedness committee to be ready for the worst-case scenario,” adds district Nursing Supervisor Jean Stauning.

This fall, the Temple (Texas) Independent School District participated in a program with the Scott and White Pediatric Department of the Baylor College of Medicine to offer free nasal flu vaccinations to students.

This vaccine, an alternative to flu shots called FluMist, is manufactured by MedImmune Inc. of Gaithersburg, Md. “Since this program began, we’ve seen an increase of attendance during flu season,” says district spokesperson John Hancock.

MedImmune, now in its third year of producing FluMist, has been offering the vaccines at no charge to school districts in California, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas, says spokesperson Clarencia Stephen.

“Tens of thousands of students -- who have a signed consent form from their parents -- have received this vaccine,” says Stephen. The kids are happy not to get a shot, and nurses say that dispensing doses of FluMist is a lot faster than giving children injections.

Michael Riley, principal of South Grade Elementary School in Palm Beach County, Fla., told the Chicago Tribune that he encouraged the free FluMist vaccines for about 300 of his students because flu season struck just as his school was intensely preparing for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

According to the National Association of State Boards of Education, “studies have shown that vaccinating even 50 percent of a school’s students can confer ‘herd immunity’ to the entire school population.”