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September 19th, 2009
Dear Parents, On Thursday, I received confirmation that one of our grade 12 students had been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus and had fully recovered. The parents kept the student at home for seven days and she was checked by a doctor before returning to school. The student has no siblings attending ABA. I want to be clear that I did not receive confirmation of the students’ illness until after the fact, and she had fully recovered. It is imperative that parents contact the school as soon as they have confirmation of a child’s H1N1 illness. In spite of what some of you may have heard, I have not received any written confirmation regarding any elementary and/or middle school students who have contracted the H1N1 virus. We have had three suspicious cases but to date, not one of these cases has a doctor’s note specifying the H1N1 strain. We have had cases of students who been diagnosed with the flu. However, in order for me to consider a case as H1N1, I must have at least a doctor’s note that the child has contracted the virus. This is not to dismiss our parents’ views but you can understand the number of flu cases we normally have in a school year and as the school nurse specified in last week’s newsletter, not all of these cases are the result of H1N1. As you already know, flu can easily spread from person to person. We have taken all the necessary steps possible to reduce the spread of flu in ABA. But, we need your help to ensure that even more precautions are taken. We are working closely with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education to monitor flu conditions. We will keep you updated with new information as it becomes available. For now, we are doing everything we can to keep ABA functioning as usual. Here are a few things you can do to help: 1. Inform the school immediately if your child has been diagnosed with H1N1. I am aware that few clinics and/or hospitals are testing for H1N1 because of Ministry of Health regulations. Please do the best you can to gain accurate information and relay this information to either the school nurse or the Superintendent. You can write to the following email addresses: mnsmith@abaoman.edu.om or ahorstmann@abaoman.edu.om 2. Teach your children to wash their hands often with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub. 3. Teach your children not to share personal items like drinks, food or unwashed utensils, and to cover their coughs and sneezes with tissues. Please teach them to cover up their coughs and sneezes using the elbow, arm or sleeve instead of the hand when a tissue is unavailable. 4. Know the signs and symptoms of the flu. Symptoms of the flu include fever (37.8 degrees Celsius or greater), cough, sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, and feeling very tired. Some people may also vomit or have diarrhea. 5. Keep sick children at home for at least 24 hours after they no longer have fever or do not have signs of fever, without using fever-reducing drugs. 6. Do not send children to school if they are sick. Any child who is determined to be sick while at school will be isolated until the parent can arrange for transportation home for his/her child. It is important that we deal with the facts and not the ever so powerful ‘rumor mill’. I am well aware of the anxiety parents are experiencing regarding the H1N1 virus (as a mother of an asthmatic child, I, too am anxious!). However, it is also important that we deal with relevant and meaningful information from the Center for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, and the Ministry of Health in Oman. We are taking all information we receive seriously and working with families and health officials to control the spread of the flu as best we can. Please do your part and help us by following the steps outlined in this letter. Sincerely,
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