Illness hits Falls students

“I don’t know why this hit like it did — Monday came, and there it was,” said International Falls School District Superintendent Jeff Peura. “Usually, a flu outbreak gradually happens over the course of a week or two, goes up, then it drops away. But this hit suddenly on Monday, and it’s been dropping.”

In this case, the illness began at “a peak number” — 166 total March 19 — and is gradually declining. Various symptoms were reported to the schools, including vomiting, sinus congestion, coughs, runny nose and fevers. The flu, sinus infections, colds, bronchitis, “mono” and strep throat were also reported to the district by parents, Peura said.

“It’s been a grouping of different things,” he said, adding that some have asked why the district did not close schools. “What do we do with the thousand other kids we should be educating? You always take into consideration what’s best for students. And it hasn’t hit the staff to the extent that we can’t manage the schools or man the classes.”

Most students have been able to recover and return to school in a matter of a day or two, Peura added.

“You definitely worry about it, any time kids are sick,” Peura said. “It seems to be a real quick turnaround, so we’ll continue monitoring it and help control the spread of it. You can see from the numbers, it’s dropping.”

The numbers of sick students decreased throughout the week. The sick total for March 20 was 153, March 21 was 132, Thursday was 121, and on Friday, 128 total students were out sick. That’s nearly 40 less than March 19, according to numbers provided to The Journal by Peura and elementary and high school secretaries who track attendance. There are a total of 1,235 students enrolled in the district.

Compared with last week, this week, 101 students called in sick or were sent home Monday, and on Tuesday, 58 were sick.

Although the numbers of ill students have gradually dropped each day, they reached the threshold to require reporting the illness to the Minnesota Department of Health — any illness that causes absences of 5 percent or more of a single school or district’s students, by law, must be reported to the state.

Sue Palm, nurse for the district, said she filed the report for both elementary schools and the high school on March 19. She reported the illness as “ILI,” or influenza-like illness — which means more than 5 percent of students had a temperature of more than 100 degrees, with either a cough or sore throat.

Palm and Vicky Wickstrom, West End Elementary School secretary who tracks attendance, compared the illness-related absence numbers to a random day in the fall, Sept. 21.

“On a random Wednesday in September, we had six kids out sick. The numbers that we’re seeing now are quite alarming, compared with a healthy season,” Wickstrom said. “I think we peaked and now we’re dropping. We’re on the uppity-up, thankfully; we’re getting better.”

Friday was the last day of the quarter, but since many high school students were absent, teachers have until April 2 to turn grades in, according to Tim Everson, principal at Falls High School. Grades were originally due today.

“By giving them that extra time, it gives kids time to get back and turn their assignments in,” Everson said. “We had so many kids gone, and some kids were gone almost a whole week.”

‘Concentrated’ illness

The number of school-aged and day care-aged children who have been seen at Rainy Lake Medical Center clinic and hospital campuses for flu-like symptoms has been higher than usual, according to Dr. Douglas Johnson, chief medical officer for Rainy Lake Medical Center in International Falls.

“There has definitely been an upswing in visits during the past few weeks,” Johnson said. “We are seeing mostly viral illnesses. However, there has been a significant amount of strep, too. The main difference this year is that the flu season is much later, and has been very concentrated into a few weeks.”

Nancy Lee, public health nurse for Koochiching County Health Department, said the illness likely did not sprout over one weekend.

“It takes more than one or two days for that to manifest,” Lee said. “There must have been something in the wind beforehand. That’s the problem with these illnesses, we’re communicating them prior to us knowing we’re sick.”

She added that other areas of the state have reported the same type of widespread illness. A similar case is also happening at Fort Frances schools, according to Lee and Palm, who made calls across the border to find out how far the illness is affecting people.

“The fact that it’s not all the same illness is kind of what keeps it under control,” Palm said.

Teachers have been reminding students to wash their hands, cover their cough and are quicker to send them to the nurse’s office, Palm said.

“For the infection-control part, teachers are really doing their part,” she said. “Hopefully, we’re doing what we can to slow it down.”

The illness has not been seen at other area schools. In Northome, about two or three students are absent each day over the past week.

“We haven’t had anything hit. It’s been scattered and slow, and very sporadic,” said Bonnie Affield, Northome school nurse. “Usually, when we have something hit (like the illness in the Falls) we have kids lining up at the door of the nurse’s office for a few weeks.”

Palm added that a brochure about decreasing the spread of illness is mailed to parents at the start of each school year to help in cases like this.

“A lot of parents chose to keep their kids home in the first place,” Palm said. “I fully expect it to just run its course.”

District 361 student illness numbers

Number of Falls district students who stayed home sick or were sent home sick each day, out of a total of 1,235 students (on a normal day, illness-related absences for the district are less than 20 students):

    Grades    Grades    District

    K-6    7-12    totals

March 19:    45    121    166

March 20:    39    114    153

March 21:    48    84    132

March 22:    39    82    121

March 23:    34    94    128    March 26:    32    69    101

March 27:    23    35    58

Source: International Falls School District