FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 5, 2009
Contact: Tom Schlueter (630) 444-3098
Revised guidance relaxes school closure recommendations
The Kane County Health Department on Tuesday is revising its recommendations for closing a school in which a student or teacher has a confirmed case of swine H1N1 virus based new guidance issued today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Rather than continuing to close individual schools based on the diagnosis of cases of influenza swine H1N1 flu in students or staff, the Health Department will instead implement a countywide policy that focuses on keeping all students with symptoms of influenza out of school during their period of illness and recuperation, when they are potentially infectious to others. This change in policy is recommended by the CDC and is an enhanced version of the approach that already is in use during the yearly influenza season.
The Health Department also is recommending that schools now closed can re-open as early as Wednesday, May 6. Parents should check with individual schools to determine when your school will re-open.
At the onset of this outbreak of a previously unknown influenza virus, it was thought to be prudent to close affected schools while more was learned about the characteristics of this new disease and the strategy for community measures to prevent illness. The collaboration of parents, students and school officials during this early stage of the outbreak is appreciated. The closures have helped to decrease spread of infection in the schools and have provided valuable time to gather information about this new H1N1 influenza strain in the community.
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New school closure policy—Page 2
“Information from our investigations and surveillance suggests that this new strain has spread more widely in our community and will continue, at least for a time, to be transmitted from person to person, including children,” Health Department Executive Director Paul Kuehnert said. “Available information from local health care providers, emergency departments and hospitals, as well as information from other states, suggests that the severity of illness from the new influenza strain is not greater than the typical seasonal influenza that circulates in our community every year. In short, school closure makes less sense at this time in the outbreak given what we are observing about disease transmission and the severity of illness currently associated with this flu strain.”
This is still in the early stages of this outbreak and the situation may change, Kuehnert added. Public Health will continue to monitor information both locally and nationally and continually assess whether changes are needed in these or other A H1N1 influenza disease control measures.
The most important thing to remember is to keep sick people away from healthy people.
If children are sick, the CDC recommends that they must be kept at home. Staying home when sick stops the spread of the flu and helps the sick person get well.
Parents can make a decision to keep a child home based on two questions:
Does the child have a fever (100º F or 37. 7ºC)?
Does your child have a sore throat and/or, cough?
If the answer is “yes” to both questions above, the child might have the flu. The CDC recommends that the child be kept home from school for seven days or until symptoms are gone for 24 hours, whichever is longer. If the answer is “yes” to only one of the questions above, keep your child home from school until symptoms are gone for 24 hours.
Swine H1N1 flu information is available at:
The State of Illinois hotline, (866) 848-2094 English, and (866) 241-2138 Spanish,
6 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week.
The Health Department’s call center (630) 208-3315,. Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays
The Health Department’s website, www.kanehealth.com
CDC’s Web site http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/
