A sixth grade student at Ascencion Solorsano Middle School was
hospitalized last week with severe swine flu-like symptoms, but
she’s just one of many school children and community members who
may have contracted the strain of influenza responsible for last
spring’s scare.
A sixth grade student at Ascencion Solorsano Middle School was hospitalized last week with severe swine flu-like symptoms, but she’s just one of many school children and community members who may have contracted the strain of influenza responsible for last spring’s scare.
Although the Solorsano student’s case was not confirmed as swine flu, she tested positive for influenza and the district is “going on the assumption that it’s H1N1,” said District Head Nurse Eileen Bontempi.
Monday alone, Bontempi sent about a dozen Solorsano students home with flu-like symptoms. Last week, 88 students were out sick, compared to 22 during the same time last year, Solorsano Principal Sal Tomasello said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, flu season has begun early, and “nearly all of the influenza that we’re seeing is this novel H1N1 virus,” said Daniel Jernigan, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC in a press briefing. “It’s a very strange thing for us to see this amount of influenza at this time of year.”
Not only are more students calling in sick, they’re staying out for longer periods of time, said Roger Cornia, the school district’s enrollment coordinator. Though he did not have the exact number of absentees in the last couple weeks, Cornia said the trend at Solorsano holds true throughout the district, especially at the middle school level.
“We’re aware of it, we just don’t have the raw numbers,” he said. “But it’s definitely had an impact on attendance and it’s come very early this year.”
The school district receives a large portion of its funding from the state based student attendance. Thus, the school district loses money when children are not at their desks. However, excused absences – including absences because of an illness – don’t detract from the district’s funding, Cornia said.
It’s uncertain whether these students have contracted the novel H1N1 virus or have simply fallen victim to the seasonal flu, Bontempi said. Like the Solorsano girl, students throughout the district have tested positive for influenza but the girl’s illness was the most severe case, Bontempi said. So far, the district has not received word of any confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus strain responsible for the 2009 flu pandemic but it’s “very likely” that some of the cases are H1N1 and the district is treating them as such, Bontempi said.
“Until just about now, all flu in the community was H1N1” whether it was confirmed as such or not, said Joy Alexiou, a spokeswoman with the Santa Clara County Public Health Department. “If you had the flu over the summer, you had H1N1.”
Although county health is not tracking H1N1 on a case-by-case basis, public health officials are monitoring the number of people checking into hospitals with flu-like symptoms.
“We’ve definitely seen an uptick since school started,” Alexiou said.
The health department only tests hospitalized patients, she said. After confirming at the county facility that a particular virus is Type A Influenza, health officials send the sample on to the state health department, which can confirm if the illness is H1N1. Since May, 136 hospitalized patients in the county have had confirmed H1N1, Alexiou said.
However, attitudes have changed dramatically since swine flu scares closed schools across the country last spring, Bontempi said. Just because a student exhibits symptoms of swine flu, schools aren’t closing or sending out letters this year – even though some parents are “up in arms” about not receiving notice each time a student at their child’s school is sent home with flu-like symptoms, Bontempi said.
“It’s not the scary virus everyone thought it was,” she said. “The virus hasn’t gained strength so far. We just have a lot of people getting it.”
H1N1 has been labeled a “pandemic” not because of its severity, but because of three other criteria – it’s new so most people have no immunity, it spreads easily from person to person, and it has spread around the world, Alexiou said.
Though county public health officials know more about the virus than they did at its outbreak last spring, and though officials expects 240,000 doses of the swine flu vaccine within the next couple weeks, health officials urge families to practice preventative care. People should wash their hands frequently and thoroughly with soap. Bontempi advised singing the tune “Happy Birthday” twice while lathering up to ensure at least 15 seconds of hand washing. When children do get sick, parents should isolate them and keep them home for a full 24 hours after the child’s fever breaks, she said.
“Just go home and stay home and get better,” Bontempi said.
While many people will recover from H1N1 after a few days of bed rest, Alexiou advised parents with children under a year old, patients that are sicker than they would be with the seasonal flu, people with a fever for more than three days, and people with chronic illness or immune deficiencies like asthma to see a doctor. Shortness of breath, chest pain, trouble breathing, continued vomiting, seizures and lethargy that escalates into confusion warrant immediate medical care, she added.
H1N1 is best prevented and treated with a “common sense” approach, Alexiou said.
“You know your kid. You know when they’re not acting normal and when you should call the doctor,” she said. “If it’s a normal bout of flu or cold, keep (children) home to care for them. If it gets worse, call your doctor. If it gets worse fast, go to the emergency room.”
Also, people should get the seasonal flu shot available now and the H1N1 vaccine when it’s available, she said.
The symptoms and severity of the strain of H1N1 responsible for last spring’s pandemic is “acting very much the same as the seasonal flu,” Alexiou said. However, the novel strain has been known to affect young people more than the elderly, unlike seasonal flu. Those most at risk will receive the vaccine first, Alexiou said.
