Central Texas schools, hospitals reporting flu; Alabama hospital bans visitors under 12

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UPDATE: CenTex schools, hospitals reporting flu; Alabama hospital bans visitors under 12
By Mary Ann Roser | Wednesday, September 2, 2009, 11:15 AM

Since students returned to schools and universities in the Austin area last week, so has swine flu.

Dell Children?s Medical Center is seeing about five to seven possible cases of H1N1 flu a day, up from zero to two a day before school started, said Dr. Pat Crocker, chief of emergency medicine at the hospital.

?We had been seeing 180 patients a day, but in last four or five days with school back in session, we?ve been seeing 230 or more patients a day, a 20 percent increase,? Crocker said.

The hospital also is seeing a large number of patients with a cold virus that looks like flu but isn?t, he said.

Officials at the University of Texas said that between Aug. 24 and 28 UT?s clinic saw 112 patients with flu-like illness.

?Not all patients with influenza-like illness are confirmed as flu, but it?s worth noting when you consider that (University Health Services) saw no patients with this illness during the same week in 2008,? said Sherry Bell, senior program coordinator, in a news release on UT?s Web site. Of course, the number does not include staff, faculty or students who sought care off campus.

Meanwhile, a hospital in Alabama, which has been swamped with flu cases, has banned children under 12 from visiting.

?We?re in a pandemic situation in our area, and we?re we?re asking that children 12 and under not be brought to the hospital unless they?re brought in as patient,? said Steven Pearce, spokesman for the 400-bedSoutheast Alabama Medical Center in Dothan. ?That?s for the safety of those children and to reduce the spread of this disease.?

No local hospital is asking kids younger than 12 to stay away ? yet.

?We?re not officially banning kids,? said Dr. Steve Berkowitz, chief medical officer for St. David?s HealthCare. ?Obviously, a lot can change if a lot of people are coming down with it.?

Berkowitz said the situation was relatively calm at St. David?s hospitals, which are providing masks to patients in waiting areas to reduce the spread of flu. Other Central Texas hospitals are doing the same thing. Dell Children?s separates patients with respiratory illnesses, such as flu, from children with sprained ankles and other emergency conditions. The Southeast Alabama Medical Center offers masks but also built a wall in its waiting room to segregate flu patients from others, Pearce said.

Austin school district officials are holding a news conference this afternoon to update the public on swine flu in the schools. They don?t plan to give out confirmed numbers of cases or report which schools have kids sick with flu, but they will have health authorities on hand to discuss what they are seeing and the precautions they are taking.


http://www.statesman.com/blogs/cont...009/09/02/schools_reporting_swine_flu_as.html

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Central Texas schools, hospitals reporting flu; Alabama hospital bans visitors under 12

Officials: H1N1 flu confirmed at Austin schools

By Melissa Taboada | Wednesday, September 2, 2009

At a press conference this afternoon, Austin school district officials said there are confirmed cases of the H1N1, or swine flu, at schools, though officials won?t confirm the number of students or how many campuses are affected.

?There is a co-circulation of H1N1 and seasonal flu in the community,? Tracy Lunoff, health coordinator for the district, said at a press conference Wednesday. Lunoff said there were ?a handful? of cases of the flu in the district, which has more than 84,000 students.

The district has sent home letters to parents describing the efforts to prevent the spread of flu, including hand-washing techniques and cough etiquette. The school buildings also are being routinely cleaned, and commonly touched surfaces, such as door knobs, the backs of bus seats and stair rails, are being cleaned with disinfectants that kills the flu virus.

Students with a fever are separated from other students and sent home, officials said. District officials are watching for students with flu-like symptoms, such as aches and chills. As always, a student must be fever free for at least 24 hours before returning to school, they said.

The district is not sending home notes when a case of the swine flu is confirmed at a campus.

?We want to be sure our response is sufficient ? but we also don?t want to overreact,? said Dr. Stephen Pont, medical director of the district?s student health services and a pediatrician at Dell Children?s Medical Center. ?It?s about balance. We don?t want to cause mass hype or hysteria.?

Pont said officials expect the swine flue to be similar to the seasonal flu this fall.

In Round Rock, officials said about 60 of the district?s 42,700 students have been absent due to the flu or flu-like symptoms. If any of the cases are confirmed H1N1, the district won?t notify parents.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ?told us it?s like seasonal flu and to treat it as such,? said JoyLynn Occhiuzzi, district spokeswoman. ?We never send home letters home for the flu.?


http://www.statesman.com/blogs/cont...009/09/02/officials_h1n1_flu_confirmed_a.html