To Parents and Guardians of Pennsylvania's Students:
In the spring
of 2009, a new flu strain
(known as pandemic influenza A/H1N1 or swine flu) appeared and quickly
spread throughout the United States. Schools in Pennsylvania were
impacted and a number had to close briefly due to the virus spreading so
quickly. With
the cooperation of our parents, we were able to minimize the
overall impact of the flu virus.
Over
the course of the summer, this
new flu strain continued to produce illness in Pennsylvania, although not at the levels witnessed in May and
June.
To combat
this new flu strain, we
plan to continue many of the measures previously put in place
to protect your children. Additionally, new guidance
from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now
stipulates that a
student with the flu will need to stay
home until
they are fever-free for at
least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications (Tylenol, Motrin,
etc.). In most cases, this would be
anywhere from three to five days where your child would be kept
home from school.
Your
school will be taking steps to reduce the spread of infections like the flu.Frequent hand washing will be
encouraged, and surfaces that are frequently touched or handled will be regularly cleaned and
disinfected. If a child is sick, he or she will be
moved to a sick room designated by the school, and you
will be contacted to take your child home.
While
school
closure will remain an option, our current recommendations are to take
such an action only if
there is evidence that other measures
are not working. School districts will work closely with
their local and state health departments in making decisions. Each situation will be
individually evaluated to assure the best course of action is taken to protect
the children and school
staff as well as minimize
the burden and impact on affected families.
Many
of you have questions about the availability and use of vaccines. Recently, persons between ages five and 24 were
identified as a priority group to receive the vaccine
against the new flu strain. The
Department of Health estimates the
first doses of the
new vaccine
will be available in October and details of distribution of the vaccine will be forthcoming.
We
also expect
to see illness due to the seasonal (or regular) flu in the
coming fall and winter. The seasonal flu
vaccine has
been recommended
for all school-aged children and is especially
important for children with underlying health problems (like asthma
and diabetes), since these
conditions increase
the risk
for flu complications. Therefore, we encourage
all parents to have their children annually vaccinated against
seasonal flu. This vaccine will be available
in the early fall,
but it will not protect
against the swine
flu strain.
Information
on the flu, and how you can protect your family, is available at www.health.state.pa.us, www.cdc.gov and www.flu.gov. For further information, contact your childs school,
your local health department, the Pennsylvania Department of Health at
1-877-PA-HEALTH.
Your childs health and
education are very important, and we hope to partner with you during the school
year to assure that both are achieved at the highest
levels. Thank you for your assistance.
Sincerely,
