Terrible winter for flu in Manawatu

absent each day due to sickness, which is a big drop since the schools’ roll sits at 61 pupils.

Those who had been sick with the flu had been absent for 7 to 10 days as opposed to the normal one to two days, she said.

Carncot School’s absences doubled this winter compared to the time last year due to illness, principal Chris Michalski said.

Foxton Beach School principal Hamish Stuart said that a number of families had left their visits to the doctor too late and were turning up with pneumonia or strep throat.

Palmerston North Boy’s High School deputy rector Gerard Atkin said winter ills had a big impact on attendance this year. ‘‘Probably more so than in recent years,’’ he said.

‘‘Lots of boys have been affected and it has taken quite some time for many of them to fully recover.’’

‘‘There have been times when we have had 30 to 40 students away and a few days of four to five staff away,’’ Roslyn School principal Joanne How said.

‘‘We have had

to

think creativity with staffing relievers were also stretched.’’

She said colds and flus had lasted longer this year.

Radius Medical at The Palms general manager Joanne Saxe said the volume of patients presenting with winter-ills had only just begun to decrease.

She said the medial centre had become ‘‘manageable’’ this week.

‘‘It’s been the busiest [winter] we’ve had so far.’’

She said it was a mixture of age groups.

Once things quieten down staff

as plan to assess how well the winter months were and look at how things can be done differently next winter.

According to experts the season was far worse than last year across the country with the blame being placed on H3N2 influenza strain resulting in less effective flu-jabs.

About 1.2 million Kiwis had a flu jab this winter.

On average, flu vaccines usually work up to 60 per cent of the time. It was estimated that the flu vaccine were only effective about half the time.