Schools enter fight against swine flu

As the Charlottesville school division prepares for a possible swine flu outbreak, the School Board decided Thursday that school buildings could be used for vaccination clinics.
The board unanimously agreed to enter into an agreement with the Thomas Jefferson Health District, which includes Charlottes-ville, to use schools and school nurses to assist public health officials in administering the vaccine.
Beth Baptist, the division’s director of special education and student services, said in an interview that there have been two confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu strain in the city’s schools, but it is not required for parents to report if their child has the sickness.
“Those may be the only two we’ve had or there could be more,” she said.
Administrators say details of the school flu clinics — such as who would receive the vaccine and in what priority — have not yet been finalized. But vaccines will not be given to students without getting parental consent, Baptist said.
Dr. Lilian Peake, the health director of the Thomas Jefferson Health District, said that the number of vaccines Charlottesville will receive is not known at this point.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, says that 40 million H1N1 vaccines will be administered nationwide in one week in October, and 20 million vaccines will be distributed each following week.
Health district officials have previously warned board members about the unusual behavior of the swine flu, which had been spreading over the summer, unlike seasonal flu, and that flu season could begin earlier than expected.
“We’d like to make [the vaccine] available as quickly as possible since the virus is already circulating,” Peake said.
Several H1N1 cases have been diagnosed in Virginia and school officials expect there to be cases among Charlottesville students. According to data for the week of Sept. 6 to Sept. 12 from the Virginia Department of Health, between 2.51 percent and 4 percent of emergency room or urgent care visits in the Thomas Jefferson Health District were because of influenza-like illness.
Surrounding health districts, such as Central Virginia, Central Shenand-oah and Piedmont, showed similar percentages.
It is recommended that all students and staff receive the H1N1 vaccine. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced last week that early data show only one dose of the swine flu vaccine is needed for most adults, who are protected within eight to 10 days of receiving the immunization.
The agency still is studying optimal dosages and the effectiveness of the vaccine for children and pregnant women.