Heath Notice

On Wednesday, September 16, 2009, Jan Mosley said:

I received a call from the Lee County Health Department this morning to inform us that they have not yet received their vaccine nor the flumist. They are projecting that it will be the week of October 5th before their nurses will be coming to the schools to administer the vaccine.

I met with Dr. Cantrell last night and she related to me that any child that has a positive Influenza Type A swab, it is almost certain that he/she has Novel H1N1. There is no seasonal flu virus currently in the population. The CDC is verifying the positives and note that 98% of positive Type A are H1N1. Additionally, there is more GI symptoms with this flu, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea which is resulting in hospitalizations for dehydration. Dr. Cantrell has ordered brochures to be distributed to all parents in the Lenowisco Health District with information of how to handle persons in the home with the flu.

Please continue to reinforce with students, faculty and staff that staying home when you have flu-like symptoms is of major importance. Please ask that your teachers, students and staff abide by cough etiquette, by not coughing into their hand(s)and continue to wash hands often. Every one should help to make sure that the surfaces in the classrooms, school buses,cafeterias,bathrooms, PE dressing rooms, field houses,and gymnasiums, etc. are cleaned often with disinfectant. The disinfection should include: bathroom sinks and water control handles,door handles, door knobs, table tops, equipment that is shared between students, computer keyboards, etc. Dr. Cantrell asked that I remind all school administrators that the DOE and VDH are requiring us to report daily to the health department daily either thru email or fax, the number of students, faculty and staff absent with flu-like symptoms or confirmed cases of flu in each school. Please keep the student numbers separate from faculty and staff. These numbers should be phoned to Leah Herring at the Central Office daily. Leah will compile the information and forward it to the Health Department.

Thank you for your attention.

Jan Mosley RN

School Nurse Coordinator