Area school districts brace for busy flu season

Claire Kitchel is dedicated to washing her hands.

The fifth-grader at Zue S. Bales Intermediate School in Friendswood proudly boasts of using hand sanitizer before and after lunch daily.

“I don't want to get sick,” said Kitchel, 10.

Because of the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, school districts in the Pearland-Alvin-Friendswood area are emphasizing recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention like hand-washing to pupils.

Those precautions also include covering coughs and sneezes, not touching your face, and staying home if sick.

The districts are promoting the protective measures with classroom demonstrations and posters in schools. They also are posting information on their Web sites and in letters to parents.

“We're trying to do as much education as we can get out there,” said Barbara Steinhauser, the Friendswood school district's lead nurse.

So far, the effort has seemed to work. There has yet to be a known widespread outbreak of H1N1 in area school districts.

Yet the virus has started to flare up in the 18,220-student Pearland school district.

As of the middle of last week, it only had one student who had been diagnosed with H1N1. That case was at Magnolia Elementary School and was reported Sept. 3.

But as of press time Sept. 14, the number of students with H1N1 had jumped to 40 and were scattered across the district's campuses, said Karen Medway, a registered nurse who is the district's lead nurse.

“I am not worried,” Medway said. “I'm cautiously optimistic.”

Before confirmed and probable case counts of H1N1 were discontinued July 24, 43,771 such cases had been reported since April 15, according to the CDC's Web site.

Of those, 5,011 people were hospitalized and 302 died.

According to the CDC's latest weekly report on seasonal flu and H1N1, the activity level in Texas is classified as “regional. “

That means there are outbreaks or increases in influenza-like illness and recent laboratory confirmed influenza in at least two, but less than half the regions of the state.

Of the CDC's five categories for flu, only the widespread level is more severe than the regional classification.

There are 12 other states that are classified as regional, according to the report.

The Galveston County Health District is monitoring H1N1 closely, said Kurt Koopman, the district's public information officer.

Schools in the county are reporting the numbers of absent students to the health district on a daily basis so it can determine if there are any emerging trends, he said.

“We are seeing flu circulate, and while that's not necessarily common, it's nothing like extraordinary,” Koopman said.

“We're not seeing any really high numbers just yet or anything.”

The health district anticipates that a vaccine for H1N1 will be available in October and has already requested enough of the vaccination for 6,000 people, Koopman said.

“In the world of public health, we oftentimes plan for the worst but hope for the best, and that's what we're doing,” he said.

In the meantime, the health district is encouraging people to get vaccinated for seasonal flu, which traditionally runs from October through May. Koopman emphasized that different vaccines are needed for H1N1 and seasonal flu.

“One does not cover the other,” he said.

In the Pearland school district, students who see a school nurse and have flu-like symptoms such as fever and sore throat receive a letter to give to their parents, Medway said.

It encourages parents to keep their child home until they are fever-free without medication for 24 hours, she said.

“We can't be too cautious,” Medway said. “This may blow over and not be as big of a deal as the CDC and government are saying right now, but we want to be prepared.”

Kitchel is doing her part at Bales Elementary.

She aspires to be a doctor someday and preaches what she practices to her fellow classmates.

“You have to make sure you wash your hands,” Kitchel said.