Newtown intermediate school closed for flu

The Newtown Bee reports via email:

School officials collaborating with the Newtown Health District have closed Reed Intermediate School and cancelled classes for the remainder of the year, citing a flu outbreak. While not specifically citing the H1N1 or swine flu virus as the culprit, Health Director Donna Culbert has already stated that anyone exhibiting flu like symptoms this late in the year is likely suffering the effects of N1H1.

Read John Voket’s full story at The Bee website.

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  • sono resident

    Interesting, because the State stopped allowing physicians to send swabs in from their offices for flu testing. Only clinics and hospitals can send in swabs. At the HS I work at no “confirmed” cases of swine flu were reported but kids were hacking like crazy the last month. Interestingly, the only way I heard about the change in State was by getting sick and going to the Dr.. The Town medical director made no mention in the change at the State level, leading everyone to believe the decline in “confirmed” cases meant the swine flu was not a problem in our district.

  • anonymous

    Kids may be sent home but if there is no medical insurance, these kids are not going to the doctor to be diagnosed. Consequently there are no reported instances of “Swine Flu” or otherwise in Norwalk. How can our city protect itself if there are indeed flu-like symptoms out there left undiagnosed and untreated?

  • Secondhand Rose

    It’s ridiculous to close the schools over this overblown medical “crisis”. Why don’t the sick simply stay home? Then they wouldn’t be spreading their illnesses to other students and teachers (or coworkers, for that matter) in the first place.

  • sono resident

    There is enormous pressure on students and teachers to not simply stay home. Unfortunately (fortunately) school can’t simply be delayed. While this is clearly nothing like the 1918 Flu, which killed more people than WWI, medical experts have concluded that this is a pandemic

  • anonymous

    Oh, if it were only that easy, Rose! We’re talking public school. Some parents have no choice but to take the risk and send their kids to school regardless of illness in order not to miss a day’s work.

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  • Secondhand Rose

    #5, while I sympathize with these parents (having been in that boat myself for some years), I also sympathize with the parents of the other students and families of the teachers (and coworkers) who do not wish to be exposed to this illness. As I unfortunately already had been, the week before my lumpectomy surgery. My own daughter came home from high school with flu symptoms and she remained home sick for a full week – by the state’s requirements, not ours. And while there were many students out with the same symptoms, her high school, with over 3,000 students, did not close – didn’t even consider it.

  • sono resident

    second hand, in part they didn’t close because no one knew how many were sick with the flu. Unless your daughter went to a hospital or clinic and they sent a swab to Hartford, the medical director does not incorporate her illness into “confirmed” cases. The school must then rely only on the % that are calling in sick to see if there’s an outbreak