Flu increases in the county among students, general public

Lorain County school districts and the Lorain County General Health District are telling parents to keep their children home if they have the flu.

Joyce Davis, director of health education for the County General Health District, said there has been a spike in flu cases this year.

The Health District received its information from communicable disease reports from hospitals and reports from school nurses, Davis said.

Flu activity is picking up and the state as a whole is experiencing higher rates than the national average, she said.

“The prevention tips are key: Wash your hands, cover your cough, sneeze in your sleeve, and, you know, keep sick people away from others,” Davis said.

The U.S. Department of Health has a flu baseline of 2.2 percent, while Ohio’s is 2.6 percent, Davis said.

“The important thing is as we go to the holidays and people are congregating, get a flu shot,” she said, but adding that the flu shot may not prevent all flu strains.

Vermilion Local Schools Superintendent Phil Pempin said the flu has spread and student attendance is down.

“The numbers are quite high compared to what they usually are this time of year,” Pempin said.

The number of kids with the flu has doubled compared to other years, he said.

The school district has put flu tips on its website, Pempin said.

“One of the things we have done in our building is we have these machines we bought a couple of years ago,” he said. “The machines go around and spray door knobs, chalkboards, everything. We do as much as we can with those machines on a nightly basis to minimize the problem. But it has hit us.

With Dec. 19 being the school district’s last day, Pempin had no plan to cancel classes.

“We haven’t gotten to that point yet,” he said. “We’re luckily coming up on a break here, so hopefully everyone rests up.

Avon Lake City Schools Superintendent Bob Scott said the increase of flu cases is just the “nature of the beast,” and most of the district has been fine except for one building, Eastview Elementary School.

“They had 55 kids out one day and 10 staff members out,” Scott said. “And actually, the principal was out for two days. And, you know, with the flu season, that’s what you’re working with.”

Scott said the district makes sure it educates the students about the flu. Schools also spend more time wiping surfaces than normal.

“We’re trying to make it as germ free

as you possibly can knowing that there’s a possibility you’ll get hot spots as we do right now,” he said. “Year to year, it changes. You never know with flu shots.”

At Lorain City Schools, Superintendent Tom Tucker said the flu bug isn’t as extreme as other districts.

“We’re actually not bad, but we do have flu here,” he said.

Attendance is normally 93 to 95 percent, but right now it is down to 89 percent, Tucker said.

“A lot of kids are going home and that sort of thing,” he said. “But we aren’t sending like 35 percent of our kids home.”

The district has stepped up in keeping clean, he said. Buildings that house students in kindergarten through eighth grade have air handlers in rooms. The air travels through filters so the same air isn’t coming back through.

According to the Health District, symptoms of the flu can include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffed nose, body aches, headache, chills, fatigue and sometimes vomiting and diarrhea.

For children with the flu, the Health District is asking parents to keep their children home from school, day care or camp for at least 24 hours after the fever is gone.

Elyria Superintendent Paul Rigda said the district may close a school if student attendance drops to 80 percent or less due to flu or illness. The district’s attendance has been a little lower than normal this month, but not to a level that required any school closures, he said.