By Charles Lefebvre

Influenza-like illness reported at Elm Street School

Mar 12, 2019 | 11:12 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Alberta Health Services is reminding parents to take precautions and help stop the spread of illness after a reported increase of influenza-like illness in students at Elm Street School.

A letter from AHS was sent home to parents and guardians on Monday. The letter does not list how many students have been impacted by the illness, but as of Tuesday afternoon, Mark Davidson, superintendent of the Medicine Hat Public School Division says 28 per cent of students from the school are at home.

“The middle of last week, the principal reported higher level of absences than the norm,” he said. “We communicate with Alberta Health Services whenever we see a circumstance like that, and let them know when we have that level of absence in the school.”

AHS sent this letter to parents and guardians at Elm Street School, following an increase in cases of influenza-like illness. We’ve reached out to the Public School Division for a comment https://t.co/j0U2I7VI6a
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— CHAT News Today (@CHATNewsToday) March 12, 2019

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If more than 10 per cent of a school’s population is absent, Alberta Health Services is notified, according to Davidson. The kindergarten to Grade 6 school has 185 students.

Influenza-like illness is the sudden onset of respiratory symptoms with new cough and with one or more symptoms, including fever, sore throat, muscle aches, joint pain, weakness or extreme fatigue, according to AHS. The letter indicates there has also been some reports of vomiting.

Public health agencies are required to investigate cases of increased illness to help identify the cause and minimize its spread.

AHS is advising parents to demonstrate proper hand washing techniques to their children and remind them to cover their mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing. Parents are also advised to disinfect surfaces, such as faucets, door handles and light switches.

Davidson says they’ve stepped up the cleaning and disinfecting at the school to help stop the illness from spreading.

“There’s a daily cleaning regiment that happens in schools, but whenever Alberta Health Services tells us there’s a specific illness or type of illness, they provide recommendations with respect to changes in those practices, and we follow those recommendations,” he said.

Elm Street School says on their website they are disinfecting everything on a nightly basis in the wake of the illness.

Both AHS and Davidson advise parents if their child is sick, they should not be attending school.

The monitoring will continue until the absence level returns to less than 10 per cent.