Chamber News

Letter to Parents from Pat. County School Supt. - H1N1 Flu

Here is a letter published by School Supt., Dr. Roger Morris to all parents about the H1N1 Flu.

September 21, 2009 Dear Parent: The purpose of this letter is to update you on the H1N1 influenza virus and the status of our situation in dealing with this type of flu. Please note this is the third notification on the H1N1 flu, with the previous letters sent August 10, 2009 and September 14, 2009. In the previous letter you will recall we sent a notice home informing you that individuals in this area have contracted this type of flu. We can safely assume that the flu has been contracted by a few students and staff throughout the school division. While at this point the occurrences are sporadic, we expect that the H1N1 flu will spread as any other flu, particularly in light of future community and school activities. As in the previous two letters to you about this subject, we provide you the following information to assist you in the preparation of the flu: • The Centers for Disease Control has recommended that the school division NOT close its schools. If this recommendation changes, we will take the necessary steps to let you know. • The H1N1 virus is essentially the flu, but is spreading at a different season than normal. • As per recommendations from the CDC and the State Health Department, we continue to maintain a level of heightened state of disinfection. • Flu viruses spread from person to person through coughing or sneezing by people with the flu. Parents can help protect their children and reduce the spread of both seasonal and novel H1N1 flu viruses by encouraging the use of good cough and hand hygiene etiquette and by keeping their children at home or away from others while ill. • The Centers for Disease Control has recommended that students not return to school until 24 hours after the fever breaks. • The school division and the Health Department are setting up informational sessions and vaccinations for students and staff in the next few weeks. Please pay close attention to any information announcing when these events will occur. We are providing information on our website on the H1N1 flu. Please go to www.patrick.k12.va.us for more on this issue. As always we continue to work with our Health Department and our local physicians to ensure that we are taking appropriate measures to address this issue. If you have other questions, please contact your child’s principal or this office.