Officials: Feeling Ill? Stay home

In the wake of a Woodbrook Elementary School student’s death and a growing number of confirmed swine flu cases, Albemarle County school officials and University of Virginia pediatricians are recommending that anyone feeling ill stay home and take care of themselves.

School counselors were at Woodbrook on Monday to help staff and students cope with the death of Steven Carson Raymond, 9, a third-grader who died Saturday after being hospitalized with flu-like symptoms. The boy, who had a heart condition, died at the UVa Medical Center.

“It’s a very difficult day. There are students and staff and families at Woodbrook who are profoundly affected,” said Maury Brown, county schools spokeswoman. “We have extra staff and counselors at the school to help children discuss what they’re feeling.”

Carson’s parents on Monday created a foundation in his name to help improve the baseball field at Woodbrook Elementary “to give others the opportunity to enjoy the game as he did.”

In an obituary, Carson’s parents, Jennifer and John Raymond, said that “as horrible as this tragedy is, [we] had a wonderful, happy son for nine amazing years and would not trade those years for anything in the world.”

Carson’s death has yet to be connected to the swine flu virus, also called H1N1, which has proven highly communicable since it first appeared in April.

Woodbrook had a high absentee rate last week and many reports of flu-like symptoms.

“We’re maintaining our absentee rate at about 6 percent across the school division, but there are pockets with 10 percent or more absentee rates,” said Bruce Benson, the county schools assistant superintendent for operation and systems planning. “Last week, Woodbrook had a 22 percent absentee rate and it appeared to be the same on Monday.”

School and medical officials encourage parents to keep children at home if they display flu symptoms, including fever. Children and adults should stay home until they have been fever-free for 24 hours without using fever-reducing medications.

“We want people to use common sense and good hygiene,” Benson said. “We’ll help students catch up if they miss school, but we want everyone to take care of themselves.”

The number of deaths among youngsters diagnosed as having swine flu has increased in recent weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last week 19 children and teenagers died nationwide from the illness, bringing to 76 the number of deaths for those 18 years old or younger since the flu pandemic began last spring.

Most of those who died had other chronic medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, heart or lung ailments or compromised immune systems.

The Thomas Jefferson Health District reported on Sept. 30 that a local man with an underlying medical condition died at UVa Medical Center from an illness associated with H1N1. His was the state’s sixth death tied to the flu strain.

Dr. Douglas F. Willson, director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at UVa Medical Center, said the center is cooperating in a Boston Children’s Hospital study that is trying to determine if the severity of the illness caused by the virus could have a genetic link.

“Some kids are impacted quickly, very quickly, while others get sick and recover with little problem,” Willson said. “The suspicion is that there may be something different about the immune response to inflammation. These are otherwise healthy kids who get critically ill and some die.”

Willson said UVa’s emergency room has been busy with flu-like illnesses but that the pediatric intensive care unit has only seen about an average caseload.

“There are some [hospitals] that have their intensive care units full, but we’ve been very lucky,” he said.

Willson noted that the CDC has cited H1N1 as no more deadly than the seasonal flu.

“The number of people who die from it will likely be higher because the number of people who contract it will likely by higher,” Willson said. “The percentage of deaths to reported cases seems to be about average to seasonal flu.”

Willson said basic hygiene is the best way to slow the virus, including hand washing, covering coughs and staying home from school or work when feeling sick.

“Common sense is really the best way to prevent the disease,” he said.

In addition to his parents, brothers Tucker, 6, and Wyatt, 4, survive Carson. He is also survived by his grandparents, Jack and Dianna Raymond of Earlysville and Richard and Carole Lear of Charlottesville.

Services for Carson are scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday at First Baptist Church, 735 Park St.