By Eileen Oldfield, Staff Writer
Despite constant changes to the procedures — and the possibility of a more aggressive H1N1 virus — public health and school officials are creating plans to handle fall flu season.
”One of the health officers joked that things are changing weekly, another said daily, then another said that there’s been days when it happens hourly,” Hillsborough Schools Superintendent Edward Forsthoffer said during the school board’s Aug. 17 meeting, referring to a symposium he had attended.
Dr. Forsthoffer attended two symposiums about the virus, one sponsored by Somerset County, and a second conducted Aug. 25 and sponsored by the state. According to Dr. Forsthoffer, the symposiums covered several topics ranging from encouraging hand washing to the potential for disseminating a vaccine specific to swine flu, or H1N1.
An agenda for the seminar included panel discussions on planning for the fall flu season, school closures during flu season, communicating with the public, and creating Health and Education Leadership Planning Teams with local health and education officials, said Beth Auerswald, state Department of Education spokeswoman.
Certain measures, like requiring that students get the H1N1-specific vaccine — a separate vaccine from the influenza vaccine students must get — would be voluntary, Dr. Forsthoffer said.
The H1N1 vaccine is expected to be available in October, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). An exact date for a vaccine release is unavailable because of time needed to complete clinical trials and time needed to produce the vaccine after the trials are completed.
The district will be sending information to parents next week.
”We will be following the CDC guidelines, which will be discussed in next week’s communication,” Dr. Forsthoffer said. “A change from last year will be how long a student needs to stay out of school after recuperation.”
Previously, students diagnosed with the virus needed to stay out of school for seven days after flu symptoms disappeared. This fall, students are allowed back to school 24 hours after displaying no flu symptoms while taking no medications.
”If you don’t have a fever but are still taking Tylenol, that doesn’t count,” Dr. Forsthoffer said at the Aug. 17 board meeting. “It’s considered still having the symptoms.”
A White House report released this week said up to half of the country’s population could contract H1N1 this flu season, and as many as 90,000 could die. The report, prepared by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, also said as many as 1.8 million people could end up in the hospital seeking treatment.
The resurgence may begin as early as September, according to the report, and infections may peak in mid-October. Even with a vaccination, it takes several weeks for people to develop immunity, according to the report.
The CDC estimates about 45 million doses of swine flu will become available in mid-October, a marked decrease from projections last month that 120 million doses of the vaccine would be available.
There is a possibility the schools could be used as a vaccination clinic site, if the township needs to administer large-scale vaccinations, Dr. Forsthoffer added at the meeting. The district is discussing the plans with the Health Department; however, no plans have been made as yet.
Hillsborough Deputy Health Officer Siobhan Spano said many people would visit their family physician to receive the vaccine, though area towns have spoken about having vaccination clinics.
”We’re not really sure how it’s going to work,” Ms. Spano said. “We’re going to suggest people stay in touch by reading the paper, listening to the radio and looking at the Web site.”
”There’s different ways to approach this,” she added. “We don’t have all the information we need to make these decisions yet.”
A key to preventing the virus’ spread is maintaining sanitary measures, including proper hand washing, sneezing into the crook of an elbow or into one’s shoulder, and staying home from school when sick, Ms. Spano added.
”To summarize it, don’t panic, get educated and do sensible things like keeping your kids home when they’re sick,” board President Steven Paget said at the board meeting.
