Health

Swine flu is causing closing schools.
by Silvia Szarkova

The number one topic of U.S. Department of Education is closing the schools for few days to prevent the swine flu and to isolate students from this illness. As the number of ill students is growing continuesly, some schools believe that temporary closing is the best way, the only thing they can do. The Federal Government ordered schools to close up only as the last solution, but schol officials are so afraid of fast spreading virus H1N1 that they feel they are doing the right thing. At least, 351 schools were closed last week- this single act affects 126,000 students in 19 states. But this schol year all together, already 600 schools have temporarily shut their doors for! a shorter period. "There was nothing else we could do," says Michael Frechete, the superintendent of Connecticut´s Middletown Public Schools, where at the beggining of the week 120 students stayed home sick of flu and another 25 students were sent home that day. "The only way to stop that transmittal was to keep the kids home for the rest of the week." There are people who believe that closing schools is a reasonable case, because of close proximity to each other, which can help the flu to spread. On the other hand, not everybody thinks this is the way to win. Especially in some low-income families, which depend on free meal for pupils, parents just cannot stay at home with children. There is also other thing. Julie Pryde, administrator at Illinois Champaign- Urbana Public Health District, says: "If kids were isolated in their homes it may help. But kids congregate at malls, at each other's homes, they go to movies — and that is not helpful."

related st! ory (sgx15747): http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091028/ap_on_he_me/us_swine_flu...

by Silvia Szarkova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

posted by Blog TechSource @ 7:01 PM