Feds Provide H1N1 Virus Guidelines for Schools

ATLANTA – The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education recently released new guidelines to plan for and respond to the upcoming flu season.

The guidelines are designed to prepare students, faculty and staff for the impact that the H1N1 virus could have this fall and winter at K-12 and higher education facilities nationwide

In August, the Centers for Disease Control released a report stating that children and young adults of school age, particularly those older than 5, are most susceptible to death due to H1N1. Children and young adults ages 6 months to 24 years comprise one of the top priority groups for the new H1N1 vaccine.

According to the CDC’s report, as of Aug. 8, 477 deaths associated with the H1N1 virus were reported, including 36 deaths among children. The CDC estimates that 1 million people in the U.S. have been infected with H1N1, and 8,800 people were hospitalized due to the virus. 

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stressed the importance of reaching out to students with innovative communication strategies, including social media tools, such as Facebook and Twitter.

“The H1N1 flu appears to be impacting a group of people who not only aren’t used to getting serious cases of flu but are not used to getting flu shots,” Sebelius says. “It is imperative that the public and private sector work together to reach students with critical information about the flu and teach them what to do when the flu hits their dorm room, fraternity house or campus classroom.”

The HHS and DOE designed a special online toolkit for administrators and students to use in case of an outbreak.

Important suggested actions listed in the toolkit include encouraging good hand washing, covering coughs and sneezes, encouraging flu vaccinations and separating sick people from healthy people as soon as possible.

Other suggested steps that institutions can take include: discouraging visitors with flu-like illness from attending institution-sponsored events until they are free of fever for at least 24 hours; examining and revising current flu response plans and procedures; making soap, paper towels and alcohol-based hand cleaners readily available; and educating students, faculty and staff about good hand hygiene.

Higher education institutions are encouraged to develop alternative programs in case of an H1N1 outbreak, including creating or expanding distance-learning programs and establishing refunds and re-enrollment programs in case a student’s school year is disrupted by an outbreak.

Secondary and primary educational institutions are encouraged to take stock of the tools they have for delivering curricula to students outside of school and to reach out to local business and community leaders for additional distance-learning resources.

The CDC’s report studied the first 36 deaths to occur due to H1N1 flu, making comparisons to pediatric deaths during normal seasonal flu seasons. It found that in addition to school-aged children being most susceptible to death due to the flu, almost two-thirds of the children who died from the virus had epilepsy, cerebral palsy or other neurodevelopmental conditions.