School swine flu alerts unlikely

If one of your kids' classmates has swine flu, chances are you're not going to find out about it.

The Lowcountry's largest school districts won't be letting parents know when isolated cases of swine flu crop up this year. Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester 2 schools are following guidance from health officials on how to handle prevention and outbreaks.

It's not important for parents to know whether their child's school has a confirmed swine flu case because the virus already is widespread and present in most schools, said Kathryn Arden, medical director for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control's Region 7, which includes Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties. Notifying parents of confirmed cases could create a false sense of security because parents may assume an absence of confirmed cases means an absence of the virus; that's not accurate, she said.

Schools are directing unnecessary efforts in the wrong direction if they are concentrating on informing parents about the presence of swine flu, she said.

"What parents need to know is there are probably cases of swine flu in all schools, and they should keep their children home if they are sick," she said.

Schools need to acknowledge that swine flu is present and focus on communicating the more important message of what families should do about the virus, she said.

State health officials made a big push in the spring to contain the virus when it was identified, which means students stayed home longer when they were sick and everyone exposed to the virus was treated, she said.

Attempting to contain the mild to moderate virus is no longer appropriate because cases have arisen in almost every county, Arden said. It's more critical for those who are sick to stay home until they've been fever-free for 24 hours without medicine, she said.

Elliot Smalley, Charleston schools' executive director of strategic planning and communications, said the district is investing its time into preventing and controlling the spread of the virus. The district has trained its schools' staff on flu prevention, and students with flu-like symptoms are sent home, he said.

Some schools might not find out that a student had swine flu until after the child feels better and returns to class, he said.

"There would be absolutely no reason -- in terms of school and public health -- to alert all parents that this child had the swine flu," he said. "You'd be causing a lot of alarm and confusion, but you'd be doing nothing to slow the spread of infection."

Principals will answer questions from parents about whether they've had confirmed swine flu cases, he said.

Dorchester District 2 spokeswoman Pat Raynor said the district is following DHEC guidelines and that it will notify parents if a group of students becomes ill. So far, the district hasn't had to notify any parents, Raynor said. But it has made information on swine flu available through schools and the district's Web site.

The district also provided information to teachers about prevention and symptoms. Principals have designated rooms in their buildings to isolate students who become ill until their parents can pick them up, she said.

Berkeley County school officials are following procedures similar to those in Dorchester 2. Spokeswoman Pam Bailey said the district has had a few classes with multiple cases of the flu. It notified parents in those cases, she said. It also has made information available to parents on symptoms and prevention.

Rural Dorchester 4 hasn't had any confirmed cases, said Joyce Davis, director of student services. But if a child gets swine flu, the district will notify the parents of all children in his class. Parents can then more closely monitor their children's health, she said.

"We wouldn't want them to take any symptoms for granted," Davis said.