Staff report

THOMASVILLE — The influenza-like illnesses affecting students and staff in Southwest Georgia schools are being treated as pandemic swine flu clusters, although not all who are sick have received positive test results for the infection, a Southwest Health District Health official said.

“Public Health has been working closely with school systems, many of which are reporting incidents of flu-like illness,” Dr. Jacqueline Grant, Southwest Health District Health director, said. “Pandemic H1N1 (swine flu) is in our district, so we are not surprised to see clusters popping up as schools reopen for the fall.

A number of students in the Thomas County school system exhibited flu symptoms and were sent home last week.

Once clusters — groups in which everyone has similar symptoms — are identified, disease investigators need only one positive diagnosis and do not test everyone who has symptoms.

“Positive confirmation that one of the sick people in a group has H1N1 allows us, from an epidemiological standpoint, to treat everyone in the group with similar symptoms as H1N1 cases,” Grant explained. “By treatment, we mean that they are, for instance, placed in isolation until the parent arrives to pick them up, as if they had H1N1.”

Not all persons with flu-like illnesses need medical treatment.

The majority of pandemic H1N1 flu cases are mild to moderate, with most patients recovering at home as they would with regular seasonal flu, said Carolyn Simmons, Thomas County Health Department county nurse manager.

“Pandemic H1N1 flu is more contagious than regular seasonal flu, and it has a high attack rate in children and teens. The symptoms are fever, cough or sore throat, headache and fatigue.

Many patients, especially young ones, also are experiencing nausea and vomiting,” Simmons said. “We are telling students and staff at schools who come down with flu symptoms to go to a room separate from others until they can go home.”

They also should wear surgical masks, if possible, so droplets from coughs and sneezes carrying the virus won’t infect others, she said. People taking care of someone with flu-like illness also should wear protective gear.

“It is extremely important to stay home if you are sick until 24 hours after your fever is gone without using fever-reducing medicine,” Simmons said.

Also, people at high risk for flu complications who are in close contact with someone with flu-like symptoms — or if they become ill with symptoms of flu — should speak to their health care provider as soon as possible.

“Early treatment with antiviral medicine is very important for people at high risk because it may prevent complications,” said Grant. “People at high risk include those who are pregnant, have asthma or diabetes, have immune systems that don’t work well or have chronic illnesses like kidney disease, heart disease or cancer.”