Lynn school board hears H1N1 update

LYNN – With children back in school this week the Lynn School Committee met for the first time since passing the fiscal year 2010 budget last June, primarily focusing the evening on a familiar subject: Swine Flu.As paranoia about the now universally known H1N1 virus has resurfaced with the start of class this fall, Lynn’s Director of Public Health Maryanne O’Connor and School Nurse Head Katherine McNulty presented the district’s plan for preventing a potentially dangerous spread of the disease to the committee, vowing to vaccinate every willing student as soon as an immunization becomes available.Information on the effects, potency and danger of the virus seemingly change every day, something that has forced McNulty and O’Connor to stay in constant contact throughout the summer months and into September.”We went to a public health meeting on H1N1 in Marlborough over the summer and we have been attached at the hip ever since,” said O’Connor. “What we are going to do is implement new guidance this year for H1N1.”As was the case last spring when the Swine Flu originally hit Lynn, federal health officials are urging districts to keep schools open unless there is a larger than normal outbreak and asking parents and teachers to take special care in making sure healthy kids keep clean and sick kids stay home.”We are going to focus on keeping our schools open, they want us to enforce an exclusion policy. That means making sure we keep sick students and staff home,” said McNulty. “The exclusion period is now 24 hours after the fever subsides, and we want to really try and prevent ‘drug and drops,’ where parents will give their children medicine and bring them to school feeling fine, and then they are in the nurse’ office a few hours later.”Originally believed to be a serious flu mutation, fears of H1N1 causing a deadly pandemic initially subsided this summer when doctors determined the virus was no more dangerous than seasonal flu. After a few months of being passed through summer camps and day care centers, health officials are now afraid that the virus may be mutating and could become more dangerous.Because doctors have stopped specifically testing for H1N1 in most cases, O’Connor said the School Department will implement its exclusion policy to any student who is experiencing flu symptoms, not just those with H1N1.Under the exclusion policy, any sick student or faculty member will be required to stay away from the school until 24-hours after their fever disappears, something that McNulty estimates will keep patients out of the classroom anywhere from 5-8 days.Using funding from the federal government the department will offer both seasonal flu and H1N1 vaccines to all students when they become available. Seasonal flu vaccines should be shipped to the schools in late September, and parents can expect to see consent forms sent home on Sept. 16.Health officials have yet to complete a vaccine for H1N1, but hope to have it available by the end of October. Initial reports suggest that students will have to receive two shots 21 days apart, but like all H1N1 information, that could change at any time.O’Connor urged parents and teachers to teach children proper hand-washing techniques an cough etiquette, and promised that high-germ areas, such as doorknobs and desk tops, would be cleaned daily to ensure that students are not at risk.McNulty also said the city will be outfitting schools with hand sanitizer dispensers soon, not enough for every classroom, but enough to add at strategic locations in every school.”I think the sanitizer is a great idea,” said committee member Vin Spirito. “And I would urge PTO members to consider buying some sanitizer for the classrooms. That would be a great way to use fundraiser money.”