90 Students Develop Flu Symptoms and School Closes
Dana Hall School, a private school for girls located in Wellesley, Massachusetts, has closed down for the week following an outbreak of flu-like symptoms among 90 of 500 students, as well as 8 staff and faculty members. This meant that nearly 20% of the student body called into the school sick on Monday.
Liza Cohen, director of communications at Dana Hall School, said that they have not confirmed any of these cases for the swine flu, but there are a number of students who have a fever and other symptoms of the flu. Due to this, they made the decision to close the school for the rest of the week, she continued. This is a precautionary measure, she added, in order to make sure that nobody else gets sick. For those students who aren’t sick, Cohen said that they will be allowed to leave the campus.
The Department of Public Health for Massachusetts hasn’t been advising schools to close upon suspicion of the swine flu for symptoms like sore throats, coughing, and fevers. This is due to fears of the dangerousness of the virus being relieved after officials found that the flu is much like a seasonal flu. Mary Suresh, the health director for Wellesley, said last week that they would no longer test cases for the swine flu.
However, the school says that they decided to do this after consulting with the state and the Department of Public Health in Wellesley. The school has around 500 students across grades 6 to 12, and this includes 145 boarders, where some of them stay on campus. The school plans to reopen after Memorial Day.