Yvonne Webb

An­gry par­ents were yes­ter­day de­mand­ing the clo­sure of the Grant Memo­r­i­al Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry School, af­ter two cas­es of the dread­ed H1N1 virus (swine flu) were dis­cov­ered among its pupils.

The stu­dents, who re­cent­ly re­turned from Mi­a­mi, where they spent a por­tion of the Au­gust va­ca­tion, at­tend­ed class­es last week. They have been quar­an­tined at home. The par­ents were de­mand­ing to know in which class­es the stu­dents were en­rolled, how many days they at­tend­ed school be­fore they were di­ag­nosed, and whether their chil­dren were ex­posed to the virus. Act­ing prin­ci­pal Bar­bara Sukhu, in a let­ter dat­ed Sep­tem­ber 8 and is­sued to the par­ents of the 1,100-plus stu­dents, con­firmed the find­ings and ad­vised that class­es would con­tin­ue as usu­al.

"Be as­sured that all pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sures are in ef­fect at the school to en­sure your child's safe­ty," she ad­vised, as she urged par­ents not to keep their chil­dren at home. Non-at­ten­dance was no guar­an­tee of pre­ven­tion of the dis­ease, the let­ter stat­ed, point­ing out that per­son­al hy­giene prac­tices were the main meth­ods of pre­vent­ing the spread of the dis­ease. Sukhu said both the Min­istries of Ed­u­ca­tion and Health have ad­vised that there is no need for pan­ic. She al­so out­lined a num­ber of mea­sures to be ob­served by stu­dents. San Fer­nan­do May­or Ken­neth Fer­gu­son as­sured yes­ter­day evening that the sit­u­a­tion was un­der con­trol and al­so urged par­ents not to pan­ic. The may­or ex­plained that the chil­dren, who va­ca­tioned in Mi­a­mi, were in school last week.

"They fell ill, demon­strat­ed symp­toms of the virus, were tak­en to the doc­tor, swabbed and, on Mon­day, we un­der­stand, the test came back pos­i­tive," he said. Fer­gu­son said the Coun­ty Med­ical Of­fi­cer of Health, Vic­to­ria, on Tues­day ad­vised the Pub­lic Health De­part­ment of the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion of his find­ings.

He said a pub­lic health nurse and a pub­lic health vis­i­tor went to the school. "We will con­tin­ue to as­sist the min­istry in what­ev­er way nec­es­sary to en­sure this dis­ease does not spread to oth­er stu­dents or in the city," Fer­gu­son said.

School ad­vi­so­ry

�2 Class­es will con­tin­ue as usu­al

�2 Pupils should be equipped with nap­kins (not wash rags) in which to cough or sneeze

�2 Hands should be prop­er­ly washed with soap and wa­ter es­pe­cial­ly be­fore eat­ing

�2 Each child should be equipped with al­co­hol-based hand sani­tis­er

�2 If your child dis­plays flu-like symp­toms, keep him/her at home and vis­it the health cen­tre or hos­pi­tal

�2 Pupils should avoid touch­ing their eyes, nose and mouth. Germs spread that way.

�2 Try to avoid close con­tact with sick peo­ple.