FLU BUG AT WORK IN CAPE SCHOOLS

A flu bug is making its rounds in Cape Girardeau's schools.

"This is probably the worst day we've had," Trinity Lutheran School principal Robert Hartmann said Tuesday. "It's not all flu because I know of a few with chicken pox. It seems like once these kids get it they've got it good."

It appears to be a type of viral infection influenza. Flu-like symptoms, including low-grade fever, headaches and body aches, are keeping many students home. School officials report fairly high absentee levels at most city schools -- nearly 10 percent of enrollments in some cases.

Vicky McDowell, communicable-disease director at Cape Girardeau County Health Center, said 243 influenza-type illnesses were recorded this week by health department sites. Those are not confirmed, cultured cases, she said; however, all recorded did complain of flu-like symptoms.

"It's passed with people coughing and sneezing and that kind of thing," she said. "If they're actually running a fever and feeling ill, the children should stay home because not only are they compromising their health, they're also risking other students if they come back to school too quickly."

A number of local schools said they require children who are sent home with a fever to be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school.

"We either have the ones that have the stomach flu or the ones that have the high fever," said Carol Simon of St. Vincent de Paul Grade School. "They're supposed to be fever free for 24 hours before they come back to school."

Simon said the school sent eight students home sick Monday, but hit an all-time high about a week ago when 41 students went home in one day.

St. Mary Cathedral School principal Carol Strattman said the fever-free rule also stands at her school. Seventeen students were absent Tuesday, and the school is averaging 14 to 19 absences among 202 students per day, she said. Some of the students aren't staying home long enough to get well, she said.

"They stay home a day and come back; then they're sick again," she said.

Pam Stovall, head nurse for Cape Girardeau public schools, said the fever-free rule isn't mandated, but it is good advice she gives parents.

"Those that have fever today I'm encouraging to stay home tomorrow," she said. "We suggest that they be fever free for a day before they return to school."

About 50 students were absent from illness Monday, an unusually high number for the district, she said. The absent students are scattered and not affecting any one building abnormally, she said.

"We've had much worst than this in past years," she said. "When you take as many classrooms as we have and divide it all up, there really aren't that many missing from each classroom."

Principal Beverly Smart of Cape Christian School said the bug seems to be keeping eight to 10 students home each week. "We're not having enough cases to close down; it just seems like every week it's a different set of kids going home," she said. "It's just not going away."

McDowell said doctors likely would treat symptoms rather than the cause of the illness because it is a viral infection. If it were a bacterial infection, it could be treated with antibiotics, she said.

"It will have to run its course unless it turns bacterial," she said. "That means plenty of liquids and rest. Doctors would probably also prescribe medication to relieve the headache, aching and fever."