• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Download full size image

Schools Receive New Government Guidance Concerning Swine Flu

Posted on: Friday, 7 August 2009, 13:50 CDT

The U.S. government is hoping to avoid the panic and confusion that led to hundreds of school closures last spring due to swine flu, as it is expected to return once kids start back to school this month, The Associated Press reported.

Officials are hoping new advice on when to shut down schools during an outbreak will lead to less chaos.

New government-issued guidance for schools on how to handle swine flu outbreaks are sorely needed, since unlike regular seasonal flu, this virus has not retreated during the hot and humid summer months and so far has infected more than 1 million Americans.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said this week during an online forum with administration officials that they hope no schools have to close, but realistically, some schools will close this fall.

Local school officials must make any decisions on any formal closing, but those officials are looking to the federal government for advice about the new flu strain that has wreaked havoc across the globe.

"The judgment will always have to be made at the local level . What we want to do is empower the local governments ... to make the right decision," Duncan said.

Last spring, more than 700 schools out of the 132,000 public and private schools in the U.S. closed their doors. And while students got an unexpected vacation, many parents wound up scrambling to find childcare.

But closings happened after the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at first said schools should shut down for about two weeks if there were suspected cases of swine flu.

However, once the virus was determined to be milder than originally feared, the CDC changed course, saying schools did not need to close and parents instead were told to keep sick kids home for at least a week.

Closing school should be "a last resort, not a first resort," Duncan said at a swine flu summit last month.

Instead, he advised school districts should use common sense. "If you have one child sick, that's one thing. If you have a whole host of children getting sick, that's another," Duncan said.

Regular flu outbreaks prompt a relatively small number of schools to close every winter for a few days because of high absenteeism among students or staff.

The CDC and Education Department also announced this week they have set up a new monitoring system to track school closures across the country.

Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has said it seems logical to make schools essentially swine flu vaccine clinics.

"We're seeing schools as potential partners," she said at the forum with Duncan.

Because of time needed for testing and manufacturing, inoculations can't begin until school has been in session for more than a month, but the government is aiming for Oct. 15.

But whether children will need one shot -- in addition to the regular winter flu vaccine -- or two for protection remains to be seen.

Federal officials have said that states and school districts should be preparing for the possibility of mass vaccinations.

Duncan said they also should make plans to keep kids learning when schools do close.



-------------


On The Net:


CDC

Source: redOrbit staff

More News in this Category