Swendsen updates Falls School Board on H1N1

This new virus was first detected in people in the United States in April 2009. Spread from person-to-person worldwide, the World Health Organization signaled that a pandemic of 2009 H1N1 flu was underway.

And the illness has been detected throughout the state.

“It is widespread in Minnesota — it’s in half of our regions,” Swendsen told the board. Swendsen said she expected that International Falls would not escape being affected as well.

However she reports that to date, H1N1 in the state has been “a mild illness in most folks.”

“But it could change in a heartbeat,” she cautioned. “It’s very fluid.”

That is why Swendsen stressed the need for the district’s teachers to anticipate a larger problem.

“School closings aren’t a measure of severity (of the illness),” she said, explaining they are the result of the lack of staff and students who must remain home due to the illness. She noted that the district’s automated telephone and e-mail system will play an important role in the event of a severe outbreak, and has already been used to ask families to report the type of illness that has kept a student home. District updates are available at http://www.isd361.k12.mn.us/h1n1flu.shtml

The symptoms of the H1N1 flu virus in people include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. A significant number of people who have been infected with this virus also have reported diarrhea and vomiting, according to the Center for Disease Control. Swendsen urged that students and staff who have any fever do not come to school.

Flu viruses are spread mainly from person to person through coughing or sneezing by people with influenza. Sometimes people may become infected by touching something — such as a surface or object — with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose. Hand washing and sanitization, and coughing or sneezing into one’s sleeve remain the main preventative measures, said Swendsen.

Swendsen, who said she closely follows updates on the virus, said latest reports say the vaccine for H1N1 is predicted to be available in late October or slightly before.

Just who should be receiving the vaccinations varies slightly from other influenza vaccination candidates. One thing that appears to be different from seasonal influenza is that adults older than 64 years do not yet appear to be at increased risk of related complications, says the CDC.

Swendsen said H1N1 vaccinations probably aren’t for the district’s staff, but is an “option for some of our kids.”

Prioritized individuals for receiving the vaccination include children age 6 months and older, pregnant women, and health providers, said Swendsen. And important candidates are chronically ill children and adults under age 64. They are more vulnerable to complications.

About 70 percent of people who have been hospitalized with the H1N1 virus have had one or more medical conditions previously recognized as placing people at “high risk” of serious seasonal flu-related complications, reports the CDC. This includes pregnancy, diabetes, heart disease, asthma and kidney disease.

Severe illnesses and death has occurred as a result of illness associated with this virus. However, most people who contract H1N1 have recovered without requiring medical treatment.

Swendsen encouraged vaccinations for the seasonal flu, available for everyone. “It will decrease your chances and there is no (reported) shortage,” she said.

Note: The H1N1 virus was originally referred to as “swine flu” because laboratory testing showed that many of the genes in this new virus were very similar to influenza viruses that normally occur in pigs (swine) in North America. But further study has shown that this new virus is very different from what normally circulates in North American pigs. It has two genes from flu viruses that normally circulate in pigs in Europe and Asia and bird (avian) genes and human genes. www.cdc.gov.