As your children return for the 2009/2010 school year, we want you to know that the Lamphere Schools is working together with the Oakland County Health Department and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to monitor the H1N1 flu situation closely. Attached you will find a parent letter from the Oakland County Health Department recommending the steps you can take to protect you and your family during the flu season.
At Lamphere Schools, everyone
will be doing their part to ensure the safety of all students and staff. Our teachers will share information with students on how to prevent the spread of disease and germs, our custodial staff, as always, will sanitize common areas such as push plates and door handles, water fountains, desks and restrooms and the administration will be communicating information with parents and the community as information changes. We are asking our parents to help us minimize the flu this season by reminding children to utilize proper respiratory etiquette by covering their nose and mouth when sneezing and then immediately washing hands.
Listed below are the guidelines from the CDC that Lamphere Schools will be following this year in preparation for the flu season:
Prevention
1. Hand Washing:
Influenza may spread on hands or surfaces that become contaminated with influenza viruses. Visit:
www.cdc.gov/cleanhands
for more information on hand hygiene.
2. Cough & Sneeze Manners:
CDC recommends covering the nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing or sneezing and throwing the tissue in the trash after use. Wash hands promptly after coughing or sneezing. If a tissue is not immediately available, coughing or sneezing into one's arm or sleeve (not into one's hand) is recommended.
3. Routine cleaning:
The district follows the American Academy of Pediatrics guidance for school cleaning and sanitizing appropriate for influenza. The schools will regularly clean all areas and items that are more likely to have frequent hand contact and also clean these areas immediately when visibly soiled. CDC does not believe any additional disinfection of environmental surfaces beyond the recommended routine cleaning is required.
4. Early treatment for high-risk students and staff:
CDC recommends that schools encourage ill staff and parents of ill students at higher risk of complications from influenza to seek early treatment.
Responding to Flu
1. Stay home when sick:
CDC recommends that anyone (students or staff ) with flu-like illness stay home until at least 24 hours after they are free of fever (100° F [37.8° C] or greater), or signs of a fever, without the use of fever-reducing medications (ibuprophen).
2. Separate ill students and staff:
Sick students and staff should stay home. At the CDC's recommendation, students and staff who appear to have an influenza-like illness at arrival or become ill during the day will be promptly separated from other students and staff and sent home.
3. Report Illness to the School Office:
If you believe your child has a case of H1N1 flu, call a doctor for treatment guidelines. Report all communicable diseases to your school offices, and provide documentation of H1N1 flu from a doctor.
4. Selective school closings:
Any decision to selectively close a school would be made with careful consideration of CDC guidelines, in consultation with the Oakland County Health Division, and with a review of the balance between the risks of keeping the students in school and the social disruption that school dismissal could cause. The CDC says selective school dismissals are not likely to have a significant effect on community-wide transmission.
