# 3105
I’ve just posted an excerpt from a longer guideline. Please follow the link to read the entire advisory.
As we learn more about this virus, and the way it spreads through a community, these guidelines may change.
The CDC advises that schools that decide to close should do so for at least 14 days. And hopes school districts wills stress the importance of not allowing children to congregate in other venues during any school dismissal.
The point is to cut down their contact with other children, to help break the chain of transmission. It does no good to dismiss children from school if they go hang out together at the mall or the playground.
Parents need to be thinking NOW about how they will deal with the possible closure of schools and daycare facilities in their community when the virus arrives (as it probably will) over the next few days and weeks.
Before anyone thinks that this is a mild virus, and so school closures are an over reaction, I will remind them that this virus will undoubtedly kill some children, and probably a lot more of their parents and grandparents that they bring the virus home to.
Influenza, particularly a novel strain such as this, is a serious business. Even when it produces `mild symptoms’ in most people.
Update on School (K – 12) Dismissal and Childcare Facilities: Interim CDC Guidance in Response to Human Infections with the 2009 Influenza A H1N1 Virus
Page last updated May 1, 2009 6:35 AM ET
These recommendations are based on current information and are subject to change based on ongoing surveillance and continuous risk assessment.
<snip>
Recommendations When 2009 H1N1 Virus is Confirmed in a School, School District, or Community
CDC recommends that affected communities with laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza A (H1N1) virus infection consider activating school dismissal and childcare closure interventions according to the guidelines below. “Affected communities” may include a U.S. State or proximate epidemiological region (e.g., a metropolitan area that spans more than one State’s boundary). These guidelines address a flexible and scalable approach that States and local jurisdictions can use based on the situation in their communities (e.g. number of cases, severity of illness, affected groups).
Recommend Scalable and Incremental School Dismissal and Childcare Facility Closure in Affected Communities:
School districts must work closely and directly with their local and State public health officials to make sound decisions and implement strategies in a coordinated manner keeping in mind:
- Decisions to dismiss students and close childcare facilities and subsequent implementation of those measures should be made based on the extent and severity of illness;
- That local authorities decide whether or not to dismiss schools or close childcare facilities; and;
- That authority for decision-making may reside in multiple sectors of State and local government; these entities must be well coordinated.
Interim Recommendations
- Sick people (students, faculty and staff) should stay home unless they need to seek medical care and stay away from schools regardless of whether schools and childcare facilities are operating normally or have dismissed students or closed, respectively.
- Dismissal of students in a school and closure of childcare facilities should be considered in schools with one or more laboratory-confirmed or non-subtypable influenza A case among students, faculty or staff in order to decrease the spread of illness in the community.
- Dismissal of students from schools and closure of childcare facilities should be considered for a school district or part of a school district (e.g., a feeder school network or a geographic area) if more than 1 school in that district has confirmed or non-subtypable influenza A cases among their students, faculty or staff. This would include pre-emptively dismissing students from schools in that district, including schools without current laboratory-confirmed cases.
- Neighboring school districts to those that dismiss students should also consider pre-emptively dismissing students from schools without current laboratory-confirmed cases. Issues to consider include geographic proximity and extent of mixing of student populations across district lines.
- If a school dismisses students or a childcare facility closes, school or childcare related gatherings should also be cancelled. Parents and students should be encouraged to avoid congregating in large numbers outside of the school setting.
If a school dismisses students or a childcare facility closes, schools and childcare facilities should dismiss students for a minimum of 14 days. Schools, in consultation with local and State public health officials, should evaluate daily the need for possible extension of the dismissal/closure based on local influenza surveillance information, and the occurrence of new infections and severity of illness in the community from this virus. This length of time is recommended because children are likely to be infectious for about 7 – 10 days after the onset of illness
