Wellington schools avoiding absences from flu

September 23, 2009

By JoAn Bjarko

The Wellington

 

All three Wellington schools report a normal rate of student absences, with few indications of flu.

“We’re doing OK,” said Paula Cardona, school secretary and health tech at Eyestone Elementary School.

With a student population of 505, Eyestone has an average of 5 a day staying home with symptoms of “fever and stomach ache,” Cardona said on Sept. 22.

The story is the same at Rice Elementary School. Peggy Uthmann, secretary and health tech, said the school of 335 students has “no more absences than last fall.”

At Wellington Middle School, student services secretary Peggy Hunter said the average absentee rate is 18 students a day for a variety of reasons. “We can’t say that it’s flu,” she said.

A few teachers and administrators at the middle school have also called in sick, Hunter said, and the school is telling people to stay home if they have flu-like symptoms. The school has 346 students enrolled.

The entire Poudre School District, with the majority of schools in Fort Collins, had a 10 percent absentee rate beginning the week of Sept. 14 compared with the usual absentee rate of about 2 to 3 percent, according to the Jane Viste, public information officer with the Larimer County Department of Health and Environment. Most of the ill students reportedly had flu-like symptoms, she said.

Viste said the H1N1 influenza (sometimes called “swine flu”) is accelerating its spread in Larimer County. She added that from Sept. 14 through Sept. 18, six Larimer County residents were hospitalized for H1N1 complications, but most people who have had this flu have recovered on their own, without hospitalization.

To help slow the spread of any flu, do the following:

• Cover coughs and sneezes.

• Wash hands often during the day or use an alcohol hand sanitizer when soap and water are not available.

• Get a flu shot. Seasonal flu has not yet arrived, Viste said, and seasonal flu vaccine is available now at the health department. A vaccine for the pandemic H1N1 influenza will be available in mid to late October at the earliest. The health department is in the process of planning mass vaccination clinics to begin dispensing vaccine as soon as possible after it arrives.

• Stay home when sick.

For more information on H1N1 flu, visit the web site www.flu.gov or call toll free 1-877-462-2911 (Colorado Help Line).