Flu takes toll at schools Flu takes toll at schools (December 26, 2003)

MV-Whisman sees absentee rate double this month

By Julie O'Shea

Many local schools are feeling the stain of the worst flu season Santa Clara County has seen in years, and the end, officials say, is currently nowhere in sight.

The Mountain View-Whisman School District, which has around 4,400 pupils, reported 6 percent of its student body -- or 264 children -- called out sick because of the flu during the first two weeks of December. This compares to a normal absence rate of between 2.5 and 3 percent throughout the year, officials said.

But over at the Mountain View-Los Altos high school district, administrators say the influenza bug has not really impacted their attendance sheets much.

At Mountain View-Whisman, associate superintendent Eleanor Yick said not only are more children coming down with the virus, but she's also noticed more administrators are getting sick, too.

"It just seems to be a tougher strain of it," Yick said.

Yick is absolutely right, according to the county health department.

"The flu that's out there is an offshoot of one of the (influenza) viruses, but it's not in the current vaccine," said Joy Alexiou, a spokesperson with the health department.

This means, Alexiou added, that the vaccine available will not guarantee one's health, and people who were vaccinated this year are still susceptible to getting the virus.

Those responsible for making the vaccine "don't know what a flu strain is going to look like," Alexiou said.

The last bad flu season was in 1996-1997, Alexiou said. This year's "could be worse, we just don't know yet," she added.

Alexiou said it could be another week before the health department determines whether this season has peaked.

Flu season generally runs from late December to the end of February. This year's started more than a month earlier. The virus is responsible for 36,000 annual deaths across the U.S. and 8,000 in Santa Clara County.

Children, seniors and those who are chronically ill, such as asthma, heart disease and kidney patients, are encouraged to get vaccinated.
@email:E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

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