Anti-flu info blitz targets schools

The first lesson for Manitoba students heading back to classes in a month will be how to limit the spread of the H1N1 flu virus, Manitoba's chief provincial public health officer said Thursday.

Dr. Joel Kettner said health officials are in the final stages of planning an educational blitz of elementary and high school students, teachers and parents to contain the anticipated second outbreak of the flu, expected to be more severe than the one this spring.

Also under consideration is a school-based flu vaccination program that may be launched as soon as an approved vaccine becomes available.

"We want the schools to be our eyes and ears because schools are often the first place we see evidence of influenza arriving in our community," Kettner said.

"Kids tend to be the initial spreaders for a variety of reasons. We first know that a particular strain of influenza has arrived and is significant by absenteeism."

Kettner also said schools must formulate continuity plans so that classes are not interrupted should teachers book off sick.

"All workplaces need to be having plans in place for (a flu outbreak), but schools in particular," he said, adding school will be closed only as a last resort.

"One thing we don't want to do is have a response or a prevention strategy that's worse than the disease itself. Our goal is to keep society running as fully as possible."

Kettner said information packets will be sent to schools in the province soon to allow teachers to be fully briefed on teaching their students about proper handwashing, to sneeze or cough into their upper arm and to stay home when sick.

"Our goal is that every able student and every parent would be aware," he said.

How widespread the second wave of the H1N1 virus will be this fall and winter is unknown, but Kettner said based on the initial outbreak in the spring, it does not appear the virus is as severe as first feared. Seven Manitobans died of flu complications. None was a school-age child.

He said a school-based flu vaccination program will depend on the availability of a vaccine. The first H1N1 vaccines will likely be approved by regulators in September, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

Kettner said public health officials are now determining who will be vaccinated first. Obvious choices are front-line health-care workers, people at high risk of catching the flu, teachers and school children.

"Ideally, if we had enough vaccine for everybody right now, we'd probably plan for administering a school-based vaccine program very early in the school year to try to get ahead of whenever this flu is going to re-emerge as a second wave.

"But given that we haven't had a school-age child die yet from this disease and that the hospitalization and intensive care rates being what they are, I'm not in a hurry to stick a needle in every child's arm in Manitoba of a vaccine that hasn't been adequately tested for safety and side- effects."

Last week, a panel of experts advised the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the first vaccinations should go to pregnant women, parents and contacts of children younger than six months, health care workers, children and young adults and non-elderly adults with chronic medical conditions.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

Most kids safe,

medical chief says

FORTY-one children ages five to 18 were hospitalized with the H1N1 virus in the spring, Manitoba chief provincial public health officer Dr. Joel Kettner said.

What isn't known is the total number of children who had the flu last spring, he said, adding that a reasonable estimate is 10 per cent of Manitoba children had it.

Of children ages five to 12, one was admitted to a hospital intensive care unit.

Of children ages 13 to 18, three were admitted to intensive care.

Of the seven H1N1-related deaths in the spring, none was a child.

"The vast majority of children in these age groups who have had the flu have had relatively mild illness not requiring hospitalization," he said.

That means one in 5,000 kids who had the flu was admitted to ICU and one in 500 was hospitalized.

Kettner said the numbers show the risk to children of severe illness and death is low.

"Parents shouldn't be overly fearful of sending their kids to school," he said. "We expect them to get this flu, but the vast majority of them will have a mild illness."

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 7, 2009 A4