Flu season makes late start in area

A late start to the flu season in Southeast Missouri has led to the closing of a local school district and a recent upswing in confirmed reports of the illness.

As of Monday, the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center had reported 68 laboratory-confirmed cases of the flu since Nov. 1. That number is short of past years, said health department communicable diseases nurse Carol Jordan.

"We usually peak in December or January, but we're just now starting to see an upswing in flu cases," Jordan said. "We're a month or so behind."

Most of the reported cases have been for those who were not considered high-risk enough to receive vaccinations last fall, generally those between the ages of 2 and 49.

On Wednesday, Leopold School District in Bollinger County canceled classes for the rest of the week after 16 percent of the district's 218 students were out sick.

"The kids who have come back to school aren't 100 percent healthy, so we thought we should just close until Monday," said Derek Urhahn, Leopold principal.

Officials in other local school districts said they too have noticed an upswing in the number of absentees.

Jim Welker, assistant superintendent at Jackson, said principals have reported both sick students and faculty, though attendance is still above 90 percent.

In Cape Girardeau, district officials said several staff members have suffered pneumonia.

Jordan said it's important to keep children home from school if a possibility exists that they're sick and to also wash hands often to help combat catching and spreading the disease.

Also, it's not too late for a vaccine to protect against the flu, Jordan said. The Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center received 1,000 doses of the flu vaccine this week that are available to anyone.

As of Wednesday afternoon, only around 100 of those doses had been administered. The health clinic will open at 8:30 a.m. today to continue giving out vaccines.

cclark@semissourian.com

335-6611, ext. 128