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District to mask kids with flu signs (Florida)
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/sep/15/na-schools-to-mask-kids-with-flu-signs/news-breaking/

Puffy eyes and a runny nose no longer will be the only signs signaling which Hillsborough County students might have the flu.

They’ll now be sporting a mask as well.

Monday marked the first day school nurses began placing masks on middle and high school students displaying flu-like symptoms, district spokeswoman Linda Cobbe said. The policy will go into effect at elementary schools as soon as a new shipment of masks arrives.

The Hillsborough County Health Department is paying for the 20,000 masks, enough for about 10 percent of students.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the federal government both recommend that schools use the masks to help minimize the spread of swine flu, said Steve Huard, health department spokesman.

The mask is to help keep other children from becoming infected, Huard said.

“The mask is really trying to keep the germ in that person,” Huard said. “It can help; it can’t hurt.”

Mary Apodaca, nurse for Rampello Downtown Partnership K-8 Magnet School, said she is quarantining children with a cough, sore throat or stomach pain - regardless of whether they have a fever - until their parents pick them up.

Apodaca said flu season started earlier than usual this year.

“It’s pretty severe this year. This is the first year in five years that we’ve been so inundated with symptoms at the beginning of the school year,” she said.

The mask is one of several steps the district is taking to contain the spread of swine flu, including a mass voice mail sent to all Hillsborough school district households over the weekend. In the message, district and health officials informed families the H1N1 vaccine would be administered in schools as soon as it is available.

Steve Ayers, director of community and parent relations, said the district plans to vaccinate “medically fragile” students before moving on to the rest. A signed consent form is required for a student to receive the shot.

The county expects to begin receiving shipments of the swine flu vaccine by mid-October.

The Hillsborough County Health Department said the goal is to get as many students inoculated as quickly as possible.

“The current plan is we will go into schools and do class-by-class and somehow vaccinate a school a day,” Huard said.

Health officials also plan to vaccinate elementary school children at district buildings for seasonal influenza.

According to the Florida Department of Health, 79 people in Florida with swine flu have died, including eight last week.

No Hillsborough County schoolchildren have died as a result of complications from swine flu.