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Swine flu staggers Fort Dale
Health officials expect vaccine to arrive in county sometime later this month
Published Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Whether it is the swine flu or the seasonal variety, there is one thing certain: it’s active again in Greenville.
And it’s leaving a lot of empty desks at Fort Dale Academy this week.
“A couple of months ago, it was Greenville Elementary and Greenville Middle School that were so hard hit. Now it’s Fort Dale,” said David Norrell, business manager of Stabler Clinic.
On Tuesday morning, headmaster David Brantley confirmed a total of 117 students in grades 1-12 were absent, approximately 25 percent of FDA’s student body. The majority of these absences were due to students exhibiting flu-like symptoms. Four teachers were also absent.
While Friday’s varsity football game is still on schedule, all Peewee, Termite and JV games have been cancelled.
According to Valerie Heath, in charge of Infection Control at L.V. Stabler Memorial Hospital, flu season “comes in waves,” spaced approximately one month apart.
“We saw a very active month in August, things were pretty quiet in September, and now it’s escalating again in October,” Heath said.
The good news: most of those presenting flu-like symptoms are able to go to their pediatricians instead of requiring the services of the ER or admittance to the hospital, she said.
“They are being treated with Tamiflu, told to stay hydrated and to stay home to recover. No trips to Wal-Mart,” Heath said.
Norrell said any individuals showing flu-like symptoms at the clinic were being treated in a similar manner.
“If it is severe enough, we’ll send them to the hospital, but thankfully there have been very few such cases,” Norrell said. “It takes so long to get back results to determine if it is swine flu versus the seasonal strain, the doctors aren’t worrying about sending cultures off. It appears the H1N1 is not any more severe than the regular seasonal flu, and it is being treated the same way.”
While area health care workers and volunteers have all received their seasonal flu shots, the swine flu vaccine has not yet arrived in the county.
“I’ve heard so many different things about when it is coming – I know it will be here when I see them bring it in,” Norrell said.
Heath said she hoped to see the vaccine for hospital employees and volunteers in supply by the last week of October.
After a relatively mild flu season last year, Norrell suspects this year may be considerably more active.
While 16 deaths have been reported in the state among patients testing positive for influenza since July 1, “most of those deaths were due to secondary pneumonia rather than the flu itself,” Heath said.
For the latest updates, call the Alabama Department of Public Health’s toll-free flu hotline at 1-877-377-7285 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.
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Comments
Posted by CasualObserver (anonymous) on October 14, 2009 at 1:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Why does Norrell always have to bring the public schools into moments of adversity that involve FDA? Here he brings up the public schools being hit with the flu earlier...when someone made a comment on the radio last week about egg throwing and FDA's homecoming, he respond with something like "what a minute, it is Greenville High School's homecoming, too." This story has nothing to do with the flu in the public schools. Moreover, the discussion on the radio had nothing to do with Greenville High School's homecoming.
Posted by riverrin (anonymous) on October 14, 2009 at 4:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Giddy up CO!!!!
Posted by INI (Rob Mello) on October 14, 2009 at 4:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Damage control I suppose. The perceived realities of fort dale I believe we all know what it is. The actual realities are quite different. Now tell them thar young'uns to wash their hands. lol
Posted by anchorgirl (anonymous) on October 14, 2009 at 9:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Norrell is making a comparison for those who are too ignorant to understand.
Posted by INI (Rob Mello) on October 15, 2009 at 12:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Which would be whom Anchorgirl?
Posted by Shane (anonymous) on October 15, 2009 at 7:09 a.m.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
Posted by INI (Rob Mello) on October 15, 2009 at 7:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
To me a rich man's sense of superiority is as despicable as a poor man's sense of entitlement. The information is exactly the same in public or private schools. There is no "secret" no key that isn't already known. Of course it's much easier for the children of the rich to go to college (ala GW Bush). And while he was successful I'd compare him to Booker T. (the guy not the wrestler). Who was also successful in life, but came from a completely different background.
The parents have to care enough to spend time with the child, the teacher has to care enough to teach, not just dictate the same crud over and again or teach A TEST!!!! Most importantly the student has to believe they can succeed via education, and thus their own talents. God given as some would say.
Posted by fromtheoutside (anonymous) on October 15, 2009 at 11:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I think the comment about the public school might have been leading into the fact that the flu "comes in waves." Maybe he was just trying to illustrate the point. Since we weren't at the interview, we can't presume how things were said. Isn't the main point of the story the flu issue, not the schools?
Posted by along (anonymous) on October 15, 2009 at 11:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
To clarify, Mr. Norrell was indeed referring to the on-again, off-again nature of the flu season. Two months ago, it hit the local public schools hard; the next month things were fairly quiet, and this month another wave has struck, which coincidentally hit FDA, impacting nearly a quarter of the student population.
This was certainly never intended to be a public vs. private school story. It is simply addressing the current major impact the flu is having on a local school and how it is affecting our chief medical facilities.
FYI We had to remove a comment from this story which consisted of a personal attack on Mr. Norrell. As we have warned before, such activity will not be tolerated. We ask that everyone be courteous and thoughtful in their comments and please stick to the topic at hand. Thank you.
Posted by CMcCarthy (anonymous) on October 18, 2009 at 8:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
If this were a school in Japan or Korea, it would've been long closed down to contain the spread of the virus. That's one of the only positive things I can say for their education systems.
It's really a shame to think how the school is putting other students and faculty at risk to avoid schedule deviations. It's not like a few weeks of missed lessons will have any lasting negative effects in terms of the students' education.
Posted by BF2C1 (anonymous) on October 18, 2009 at 10:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I just knew that someone would change their username and password to post to the comments again. Could this person be a worker for the Peace Corps. in South Korea that only recently signed a contract for another four years?
He is hardy informed enough to make comments and criticisms concerning the local schools while out of the county.
Maybe I have missed something, but I thought that all of the schools in Butler Co. were asking parents to keep their children home if they had signs of influenza.
And I have a strong suspicion that CMcCathy is not really Dr. Robert Webster (leading influenza researcher) at Children's Hospital in Memphis, TN.
If you are Dr. Webster then you already have my email address.
Posted by CMcCarthy (anonymous) on October 19, 2009 at 1:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Hate to spoil your conspiracy theory. I graduated from FDA in '02, lived in Japan and am currently finishing a contract in Korea, so I kind of have a bit of insight.
No offense to the Advocate, but it would take a severe stimuli-deprived person to go through creating multiple accounts just to troll a small town's newspaper. I check in every now and again out of homesickness only to see, well, nothing much.
Posted by BF2C1 (anonymous) on October 19, 2009 at 5:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I will have look you up in my FDA yearbook.
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