Schools feeling the strain of H1N1

H1N1 is back in the Okanagan and, as predicted, the virus is coursing through the school system.

On Monday, KVR Middle School had 100 students staying home with flu symptoms. That’s 21 per cent of the student population absent and double what Interior Health considers a reportable cluster of H1N1 cases.

Other schools are also reporting high numbers of sick students but the Okanagan Skaha School District has no plans to start closing schools. Superintendent Wendy Hyer said with only a few staff members sick, there was no reason to reconsider plans to avoid school closures, which they have found are not always effective at preventing the spread of the virus.

It’s very different from the situation in Kitimat earlier this week, where schools were seeing up to 60 per cent reporting in sick, causing school officials there to close all schools in the district.

However, the number of students ill at KVR is an indicator of a rising trend. On Oct. 26, only one school in the district reached the 10 per cent benchmark for reportable cases of the flu. But the next day, two schools reached that level, then three the following day.

Two days of quiet followed, said Hyer, when no schools had a reportable level of sick students. But on Nov. 2, nine schools were reporting 10 per cent or more of their student body home sick.

“Schools are the path we’re seeing the flu spread through,” said Dr. Rob Parker, a medical health officer with Interior Health. While H1N1 was out of the headlines over the summer, he said, Interior Health continued to see a small number of cases.

That meant with the students returning to class and spending more time indoors as the weather cooled, H1N1 was bound to become more active, resulting in some proactive planning by school districts across the province.

Though schools have supplies of masks and gloves, as well as quarantine areas for students and staff that become ill during the day, Hyer said they are putting the emphasis on one of the most basic ways of preventing the spread of the disease.

“We’re encouraging everyone to wash their hands often,” said Hyer. She explained that while custodians are cleaning high contact surfaces at least twice daily, that only lasts until the next time an infected person sneezes or touches the surface.

Jeff Guy, one of the vice-principals at Penticton Secondary, has personal experience with H1N1. He contracted the virus in Japan, while on an extended field trip with a group of students to Penticton’s sister city, Ikeda.

Guy was sick for about two weeks. He describes the symptoms as more severe than the common flu he had experienced before.

“It’s a nasty flu,” he said. “It zaps your energy and leaves you with muscle and body fatigue.”

He wasn’t alone in getting sick during the trip. Six of the students also became ill and were quarantined during the trip.

“In spite of all the challenges, the experience was amazing,” he said. The host families were exceptional in the care they gave the sick students, with mothers sometimes sitting up all night caring for their guests. “It was really heartwarming.”

“I think there is some concern out there among parents,” said Hyer, who attributes part of the concern to the death of a 13-year-old Toronto hockey player late last month from H1N1.

The line between panic and the appropriate amount of concern is a delicate balance, explained Parker. Like the seasonal flu, the majority of people that get the disease will recover, but that doesn’t mean the public health system can disregard that this is a particularly contagious form of an infectious disease.

“Nobody has immunity except some older people,” he said. The H1N1 strain is very different from seasonal flu strains where common characteristics from year to year give people with previous exposure at least partial immunity.

Like schools, hockey teams are taking H1N1 very seriously, especially in light of the Toronto boy’s death.

Bruce Judd, president of Penticton Minor Hockey, says that while they haven’t had any cases of H1N1 yet, they are taking precautions, like ensuring players use their own water bottles and towels as well as temporarily banning the traditional handshakes at the end of games.

“To my knowledge, no one has got it,” said Judd. “Just the regular flu. It’s a major concern for everybody.”

Fred Harbinson, coach and general manager of the Penticton Vees, said they are taking similar steps to protect their players. Chatting with Ryan Pinder on Coaches’ Corner, Harbinson said the concern is justified, pointing to the Merritt BCHL team, which had 15 players on the sick roster.

It’s going through every league and it’s going through schools, Harbinson said, adding that they are concerned about the health of their players and the team management wants to do what they can to curb it.

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