H1N1 spreads to more schools but no need to panic

KENT — One week after a case of H1N1 was confirmed at Kent Center School, area boarding schools are also experiencing what is likely the virus.

The Torrington Area Health District (TAHD), which is the health authority for most towns in this region and for 19 towns in the state, said that at this point most cases are not being tested.

"If a patient has a fever and flu-like symptoms at this time of year," said TAHD Director of Health Jim Rokos, "we are assuming it’s H1N1." The regular flu season doesn’t start until January.

When asked why the two youths in Kent (one is at the Marvelwood School, the other is at Kent Center School) were specifically tested for H1N1, he said families and doctors can choose to do a test with a private lab if they want, even though the state is no longer testing individual cases.

"If we suspected there was an outbreak in a large group of people, for example at a school or a hospital or an institution, we could arrange to test up to five people and submit the tests to the state," he said. But, he reiterated, "right now we’re not testing."

The virus does seem to be spreading, he said, and he anticipates that it will be in all the area schools, public and private, "in the not too distant future."

When they can, schools are sending children home and asking parents to keep them at home until at least 24 hours after flu symptoms and fever have abated. Some boarding schools have been able to keep sick children in their infirmaries, but most have limited facilities and are quarantining students who have flu symptoms in their dorm rooms.

Alternate sleeping arrangements are being made for the roommates of those students. Some students are wearing blue germ-protection masks as they walk around campus.

Rokos stressed that there is no reason to panic.

"This is not a public health emergency," he said. "It’s more like a marathon."

Area residents have been showing symptoms of what could be H1N1 for several months —although, Rokos said, "We’re a little behind the rest of the country. Our region is not experiencing the rates they’re experiencing elsewhere. We don’t know why that is. Maybe it’s the weather. Also, some people are less susceptible to it than others. We did have cases of it here in the spring, so perhaps some people have built up an immunity."

He also noted that some people get very severe symptoms while others do not.

"There are still things about this disease that we don’t understand," he said.

Preventive measures include "covering your cough, washing your hands often and staying away from people who are sick."

Small amounts of the H1N1 vaccine are becoming available but the state is deciding who should receive it at this point.

"We think it’s going to be months before everyone can be vaccinated," he said, in part because the serum is still being cultivated.

There have been some concerns that the vaccine can actually make people sick.

"People do sometimes get an immune reaction that they confuse with the disease," Rokos said. "The live virus, which comes in spray form, is a weakened version of the virus that can give you a mild, flu-like illness. Most adults are going to get the injection, and that’s the killed virus. As an example, I recently had my seasonal flu shot, and my arm was sore and I was more tired than normal for a while. That can happen. But that’s an immune response, not the disease."