Keep sick kids home: health officer
The flu bug is making its rounds on the North Shore.
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Updated: October 21, 2009 12:56 PM
As a flu bug hits schools in North Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, and as health authorities report the second wave of human swine flu, or H1N1, is hitting the province, the North Shore’s medical health officer has issued a letter asking parents to keep sick kids at home.
At Outlook press time, the school district reported two schools – one an elementary school – at absentee rates over 10 per cent.
It’s protocol for the district to notify Vancouver Coastal Health when that happens, said school district communications manager Victoria Miles.
School board chair Susan Skinner added that while absentee rates that high are generally out of character for the fall, they are common during high flu season – most often the wintertime.
In a press conference last week provincial health officer Perry Kendall said B.C. is hit the hardest in Canada by the H1N1 bug so far, and the flu strain shows up in about half the samples tested daily by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
“If your child, other family members, friends or co-workers fall ill with cough, fever and muscle aches it is certainly due to H1N1 flu virus at this time,” North Shore medical health officer Brian O’Connor told parents and school staff in the Oct. 16 letter.
He added that most sick people have “had illness that, while unpleasant, has not lasted long and has not been severe.”
O’Connor wrote that children with chronic conditions like asthma, diabetes, heart disease or other immune weaknesses should consult a doctor about a “flu plan” such as advance prescriptions to anti-viral drugs in the event that the flu strikes.
“What it (the letter) speaks to is the fact that the (H1N1) virus is out there, it’s among us, and in most cases it’s going to be like a regular flu,” said Skinner. “And those who have compromised immune systems need to be on the alert and consult doctors right away.”
The North Van school district has completed its pandemic response plan, said Skinner, a protocol document mandated by the ministry that outlines duties and action plans in the event of a flu pandemic.
kmcmanus@northshoreoutlook.com
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