H1N1 & Saint Bernard School Update

September 14, 2009

Dear Saint Bernard Parent,

The following is a form letter in italics from the State Department of Health and Education that was asked to be forwarded to you.  Please note the following statement that has been modified from the letter below to fit the needs of our school:

I am sure that you are well aware of all the recent information in the media regarding the H1N1 Flu Virus.  Please know that at Saint Bernard School, we are taking steps to help prevent the spread of this virus at school.  To date, we have no knowledge of any reported cases in our school community.

The maintenance department and cleaning crew will be doing additional disinfecting of common surface areas to help minimize the risk.  In addition to this, children will be encouraged to clean their hands frequently during the day and also use disinfecting wipes during the day to clean their desk tops.  If your child is ill, you are strongly encouraged to keep them home until they are better.  For the protection of all children and adults, students with flu like symptoms will be sent home from school with no exceptions made.  Students should not return to school until they are fever free for 24 hours.  This is fever free without taking any fever reducing medication. Also, children frequently have stomach problems and do vomit in school.  If your child vomits at home, they should not come to school for 24 hours until they do not vomit again.

Please have in place a ‘family emergency plan’ to pick up your child at school should they experience flu like symptoms.  The plan should provide for someone to pick up your child within the hour that you are contacted from the school office.

God Bless+

Mr. Daniel J. Wagner

Saint Bernard Principal

To Parents and Guardians of Pennsylvania’s Students:

In the spring of 2009, a new flu strain (known as pandemic influenza A/H1N1 or swine flu) appeared and quickly spread throughout the United States.  Schools in Pennsylvania were impacted and a number had to close briefly due to the virus spreading so quickly. With the cooperation of our parents, we were able to minimize the overall impact of the flu virus.

Over the course of the summer, this new flu strain continued to produce illness in Pennsylvania, although not at the levels witnessed in May and June. 

To combat this new flu strain, we plan to continue many of the measures previously put in place to protect your children.  Additionally, new guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now stipulates that a student with the flu will need to stay home until they are fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications (Tylenol, Motrin, etc.).  In most cases, this would be anywhere from three to five days where your child would be kept home from school.

Your school will be taking steps to reduce the spread of infections like the flu.  Frequent hand washing will be encouraged, and surfaces that are frequently touched or handled will be regularly cleaned and disinfected.  If a child is sick, he or she will be moved to a sick room designated by the school, and you will be contacted to take your child home. (There is not such a supervised room at school and students ill need to sit in the school office. This is one reason it is important to pick up your child as soon as possible when contacted by the school office.)

While school closure will remain an option, our current recommendations are to take such an action only if there is evidence that other measures are not working.  School districts will work closely with their local and state health departments in making decisions.  Each situation will be individually evaluated to assure the best course of action is taken to protect the children and school staff as well as minimize the burden and impact on affected families.

Many of you have questions about the availability and use of vaccines.  Recently, persons between ages five and 24 were identified as a priority group to receive the vaccine against the new flu strain.  The Department of Health estimates the first doses of the new vaccine will be available in October and details of distribution of the vaccine will be forthcoming.

We also expect to see illness due to the seasonal (or regular) flu in the coming fall and winter.  The seasonal flu vaccine has been recommended for all school-aged children and is especially important for children with underlying health problems (like asthma and diabetes), since these conditions increase the risk for flu complications.  Therefore, we encourage all parents to have their children annually vaccinated against seasonal flu.  This vaccine will be available in the early fall, but it will not protect against the swine flu strain.

Information on the flu, and how you can protect your family, is available at www.health.state.pa.us, www.cdc.gov and www.flu.gov.  For further information, contact your child’s school, your local health department, the Pennsylvania Department of Health at 1-877-PA-HEALTH.

Your child’s health and education are very important, and we hope to partner with you during the school year to assure that both are achieved at the highest levels. Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Pennsylvania Department of Health and Education