By Matt Sloane
WebMD Health News
Dec. 17, 2014 -- Flu season is ramping up, according to the CDC, which is reporting widespread flu activity in 14 states, including much of the U.S. mid-Atlantic region and several Southern states.
In many states, flu is having a big impact on schoolchildren. In at least two counties in the South, entire school systems are beginning the holiday break early because of an increase in kids sick with flu-like symptoms.
“Due to unforeseen circumstances, we will operate on an early release schedule Wednesday, December 17th,” says the notice posted on the Polk County, GA, school district’s web site. The notice says school will remain closed until after the winter break because more and more students are out sick.
“I had a lot of people tell me on Monday that they just were not going to be able to send their kids to school later in the week, because they didn’t want their kids sick all the way through the Christmas vacation,” Polk County Superintendent William Hunter, PhD, told Atlanta NBC affiliate WXIA.
Out of the district’s 7,800 students, 1,300 of them were out sick Monday, along with 78 of the district’s 500 teachers, he said. “The decision was pretty easy to make.”
Similarly, the Cherokee County school district in western North Carolina has announced it will shut down all schools by Thursday -- 2 days earlier than planned -- for winter break.
There are various reports from Chicago to Ohio to Georgia of individual schools shutting down as well, and warnings going out to parents about keeping kids home if they show symptoms of illness.
One school district in suburban Atlanta even sent a letter to parents asking them to simply keep sick children home from school, and not to try and cover up their kids' fever symptoms by giving them fever-reducing drugs.
Less-Effective Flu Vaccine
It’s not clear whether the flu is solely to blame for the uptick in illnesses.
“I’m seeing a lot of strep, I’m seeing RSV, conjunctivitis, ear infections, and croup,” says Atlanta-area pediatrician Jennifer Shu. “There are a lot of kids missing a lot of school these days.”
source : Flu Activity Up, Some Schools Closing
