Posted on 05/14/2009 10:29:21 PM PDT by BellStar
One-third of Travis Elementary School pupil missed school Thursday because of a mysterious illness, leaving Houston ISD and city officials scrambling to diagnose the cause.
They suspect a virus is behind the fevers, headaches and stomachaches that sidelined 242 children, including about 80 percent of the third grade at the Heights neighborhood school.
Thats a sharp increase from the 86 students who stayed home sick Wednesday, when educators were forced to cancel an extensive third-grade field trip.
I felt like really bad, said 8-year-old Luke Morrison, who was too sick to attempt the much-anticipated trip. I just was scared. I started crying.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Makes me wonder where the field trip was going.
And yet...our borders remain wide open, unchecked. AND we are allowing the criminals in third world countries to come right in and go to our schools for free.
holy cow
That would be my guess, Norwalk or Norovirus.
No way does food poisoning from parents explain even half of the absences in this case. Since food poisoning is not contagious that would mean every truly sick child had to eat tainted food. The only way to explain that would be the cafeteria.
Have you seen what they are feeding those kids these days???
I’m all for caution when it comes to the kids, but man...
I remember the institutional nature of the food services provided to me when I was going to school around here, but it was borderline bad...
Nowadays, it is a choice between “green” or “brown” as a choice (sometimes) for these kids...
Federal prisoners eat better...sometimes...And before anyone asks, yes, my brother was a guest in one of their facilities for a couple of years...
????? : )
Scary!
Damn! That is amazing...wonder how the other 2/3rds got around?
LOL, well I wouldn’t want it to be by force. I would hope they were feeling better.
ping... (Thanks, BellStar!)
More today: Swine flu forced the closure Friday of a Houston elementary school where 12 students have been confirmed to have the virus, the states largest outbreak in a single location.
In an HISD school he’d do OK, as long as the missing third was his head and neck.
Now those who were told they had Type A Influenza in fact 15 to 35 tested positive for Man/Bird/Pig, many were misdiagnosed or never seen by health care professionals. This school is closed until Tuesday.
But Norovirus is very contagious.
CDC does not track it in the USA, but in the UK and EU the norovirus tally often reaches many thousands.
In PA two years ago there was a Boy Scout camp in which almost all the campers got noro over a two week period.
If it lasts a day or two it’s not influenza. One or two days and it could be gastroenteritis or noro or Norwalk virus.
But that still would not be food poisoning caused by leaving food unrefrigerated, as the other poster implied. It could indicate inadequately washed produce, but that is not at all what was stated.
True. Mostly people don’t have a clue what’s making them ill or where it came from. When people get symptoms of gastroenteritis they usually blame “food poisoning”.
My point was that noro is far more likely than food poisoning.
But very curious, they have closed this school so the kids and staff don’t spread germs to each other.
But they have decided that they can gather outside at lunch so the children can receive a brown bag lunch!
Do they not talk or come into contact with each other at this time?
Little girl interviewed on TV said, this was good (the free lunch)it would not cost her parents much money.
Sigh.............
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