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(( Swine flu forced the closure Monday of four schools in Jefferson County, while students in a Florissant school became some of the first to be vaccinated against the virus. ))

H1N1 shuts 4 schools in Jefferson County

BY BLYTHE BERNHARD
POST-DISPATCH
10/13/2009
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/sciencemedicine/story/48FCE30D86AF66268625764E001340C0?OpenDocument

Swine flu forced the closure Monday of four schools in Jefferson County, while students in a Florissant school became some of the first to be vaccinated against the virus.

The situation illustrates the challenge of the H1N1 virus, which struck before a vaccine became widely available and seems to be more contagious among school-age children. Vaccine supplies have slowly started to arrive, but the distribution system varies by each local health department.

Jefferson R-VII School District, which includes four schools and more than 700 students in kindergarten through ninth grade, will be closed to students until Oct. 20. Nearly a third of the kids were out sick Monday, and many more came to school with flu symptoms, said Superintendent Tom Guenzler.

Jefferson County has received only 1,100 doses of H1N1 vaccine, and most were sent to pediatricians, said Dennis Diehl, director of the county’s health department.

“We haven’t had enough to really do anything (in the schools),” Diehl said. “There may be a fairly long period of time before we’re able to offer it to everyone who wants it. People are going to rightly ask why is it taking so long and why weren’t we first.”

Guenzler said he’s never seen an illness shut down a school during his 32 years in education. The missed days will be made up at the end of the year.

“Our staff and teachers were falling like flies, too,” Guenzler said. “We decided it was in the best interest of the entire district to shut down until next week and make sure everybody gets healthy.”

The decision to close schools is left to individual districts, although the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said closures do little to prevent the spread of illness in a community.

Young people have been more likely to catch H1N1, and most have endured mild to moderate symptoms. Since the swine flu first showed up in the U.S. last April, 76 children have died from the virus. The seasonal flu kills from 50 to 100 children a year, according to the CDC.

Children are among the priority groups to receive the H1N1 vaccine. The first vaccines to be processed came in nasal spray form, which is only recommended for healthy people ages 2 to 49. Everyone else, including pregnant women and children with asthma, will have to wait for the shots to start arriving later this week.

Diehl and other public health officials are asking for patience and understanding as the vaccines roll out.

Some health departments, including St. Louis city and St. Charles County, asked manufacturers to send the initial doses directly to doctors. Madison and St. Clair counties in Illinois are waiting on additional shipments before hosting clinics. St. Louis County decided to deliver some of its first 5,000 doses to Hazelwood and Rockwood school districts because of their size and level of flu activity.

Hazelwood’s initial doses went to 23 kindergartners and first-graders Monday at Brown Elementary School in Florissant. More will be given out Wednesday to freshmen at Hazelwood Central High School. Students must receive parental consent before getting the vaccine.

The vaccine process includes three steps. First, a nurse takes the child’s temperature to make sure he’s not running a fever. The vaccine is then squirted up the child’s nose, one nostril at a time. The child is kept in an observation room for 10 minutes before going back to class.

The spray feels cold, funny and ticklish but doesn’t hurt, kids said. The kids were told to dab their noses but not blow. Most of the time, the spray didn’t trigger any sneezes.

Rainna Chadduck, 6, didn’t flinch when getting the spray, although later said she “kind of gagged.”

Children under age 10 will need two doses of the H1N1 vaccine, spaced about a month apart. They won’t develop maximum immunity for eight to 10 days after the second dose.

Until then, kids at Brown Elementary have been coached on good hygiene practices like hand washing and sneezing into elbows, even if they don’t fully understand the science behind it.

“Every time my sister doesn’t cough in her sleeve she gives me the swine flu,” said Weldon Streeter, 6.