May 5, 2009
The San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) is working with local school district officials to reopen three local high schools where students were dismissed, based on new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The schools are scheduled to reopen Wednesday.
“We received new guidelines on school closures this morning from the CDC and we are working closely with the education officials from the two school districts to open the schools to students once again,” said Wilma Wooten, M.D., M.P.H., and County Public Health Officer. “The new guidelines call for schools to remain open - with an emphasis on having students, teachers or staff who exhibit influenza-like illness stay home and not go to school or out into the community for at least seven days.”
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When Should You Take Your Child to the Emergency Department?
The new guidelines call for student dismissals only when there is a large number of faculty or students absent and that interferes with a school’s ability to function, according to the CDC.
The schools where students were dismissed include San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts and Kearny High School in the San Diego Unified School District and Mission Hills High School in the San Marcos Unified School District.
Area parents are also asked to refrain from bringing children to area emergency departments to be tested for H1N1 Influenza. “Our local emergency departments are being severely impacted with people bringing in children to be tested. Only those individuals that develop complications from Influenza-like illness should be evaluated by their primary care providers,” said Wooten.
The CDC has confirmed three new cases of human infection with H1N1 Influenza in San Diego County residents, bringing the total number of cases to 27. The new cases are a 1-year-old male and two military cases: a 33-year-old male and a 37-year-old male.
For more information
County H1N1 Flu Site
2-1-1 San Diego phone information
CDC H1N1 Flu Site
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