Word: childrene
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...according to officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which issued new guidelines Friday, Aug. 7, for grades kindergarten through 12, preventing H1N1 infections should begin with less drastic measures: frequent hand-washing and coughing into sleeves (not hands), and keeping all children with flu symptoms at home. The CDC recommended that schools remain open, even during outbreaks of flu - a shift from its recommendation at the beginning of the pandemic last spring, when schools were advised to shut down immediately when students became ill. (See pictures of thermal scanners hunting for swine...
Balancing the social costs of widespread school closures - including the risk of unsupervised children at home - against the potential health risks of remaining open, government officials advised schools to not shut down in most cases. "If there are a handful of [flu] cases in a school, the real goal is to keep the school open," Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told reporters at a press conference also attended by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden...
...government also recommended that schools create isolation-type facilities, where sick children can be housed to prevent the spread of infection before they are taken home. The Federal Government will provide masks and other resources to local authorities for use by sick students and school staff...
...most significant change in the CDC's guidelines, compared with those issued last spring, is to allow children back to school 24 hours after their fever subsides (without the benefit of fever-reducing medication). Previous guidelines, issued during the height of the outbreak, suggested that kids stay home for seven days after the onset of the first flu symptoms. "This recommendation is based on new information from studies both in the lab and person-to-person on how the virus spreads," said the CDC's Frieden. "This is a shorter period, and it's more practical...
...guidelines issued Friday did not include U.S. colleges or schools for children younger than kindergarten age; those recommendations will be issued Aug. 23, officials said. In the meantime, CDC experts are closely monitoring the march of H1N1 through the southern hemisphere, in Australia and in South America as well as in the U.S. So far, data show that the virus is having about the same health impact as seasonal flu, which still causes about 30,000 deaths each year. And, as Sebelius noted, "Typically parents do not keep their children home if their classmates come down with the flu." That...