H1N1 may be pushing school absences higher

The H1N1 flu strain is a likely culprit for students missing class in certain parts of the region, even as flu vaccines make their way to schools in Central Virginia.

Absences piled up at Rustburg Elementary and Rustburg High School in Campbell County this week, reaching rates of 18 percent of students at the elementary school on Monday and 16 percent of students at the high school on Wednesday.

Paul Nazigan, Rustburg High School assistant principal and athletic director, said students typically have been absent a few days at a time with a viral illness. He sees the absentee rate as a change from last fall, but not an educational catastrophe.

“I don’t think it’s been a mass disruption,” Nazigan said, adding that he has seen manyparents coming in to pick up students’ schoolwork.

Other schools in Campbell County with many students out this week include Rustburg Middle School, Brookville High School and Altavista Elementary School. Altavista Elementary, which is seeing fewer absences now than at the beginning of the week, still had 46 students absent from school on Thursday. That’s up from what school nurse Robin Mattox estimated is the usual average of roughly 20 or so students out.

Overall, absentee rates in Campbell County seem to be significantly higher than in Lynchburg. In Lynchburg, the highest rate for a school on either Tuesday or Wednesday was 10 percent absent at E.C. Glass high school on Tuesday. Thursday’s numbers were not yet available from the Lynchburg Schools and students had a holiday Monday.

Both Lynchburg City and Campbell County divisions recently started collecting absentee data on a daily basis as part of a statewide effort to track the H1N1 flu.

According to Shayla Anderson, public information officer for the Central Virginia Health District, H1N1 is the flu that is going around in the area right now. Plans to finish inoculating students for the regular seasonal flu are on hold, because inoculations for H1N1 are the priority.

Lynchburg City schools plan to vaccinate all eligible students this upcoming week, free of cost. Lynchburg City Schools nurse coordinator Marilyn Gordon projects roughly 40 percent of students will receive the vaccine. Permission forms for the H1N1 flu mist vaccine are due today for Campbell County students, but Anderson could not say when vaccinations would begin in those schools.