“We reported it immediately and the Department of Health was out there that afternoon,” Wendy Sinnette, assistant superintendent of human resources with La Cañada Unified School District, said Monday afternoon. “We’re seeing healthy kids and we’re being told the school is safe by the Dept. of Health. We’ll continue to update the La Cañada Elementary community.”
Swabs were taken of five students whose symptoms were considered severe enough to warrant a visit to a pediatrician’s office. All five came back positive for type A influenza and by late Friday afternoon, two those five came back positive for H1N1, Sinnette said. H1N1 is a subset of type A influenza, the most common form of the flu.
“We’ve had a few parents concerned,” Sinnette said. “Maintenance and custodial came in late on Friday and sanitized everything in the classrooms, down to the carpet. We’ve tested every child for fever when they came back on Monday and not a single fever. A few went home with stuffy noses.
“We think we’ve gotten it isolated.”
The good news is that the recent cases of H1N1 reported in the area haven’t been deadly.
“We’ve had one documented case, a man who came back home from Panama,” said Dr. Skip Barber of Verdugo Medical Center. “Most cases are occurring in younger people. There were scattered cases in summer camps and now there’s been an outbreak at one USC dorm. That’s where we expected to see it.”
The good news is that this iteration of the H1N1 doesn’t seem to be as deadly as previously believed, he said.
“People are getting sick from it, but aren’t dying,” Barber said. “I recommend [if they catch the H1N1 virus] they stay home and rest. If they are a high risk group, they should consult their physician.”
To prevent catching it, be cautious.
