Preparing for swine flu

The Western School District is taking preventative measures to ensure the H1N1 virus (swine flu) stays out of its schools.

At the start of the school year, the school district sent information to its 70-plus schools to inform students, staff and parents about the virus and which simple measures to take to ensure a clean environment.

The three measures are washing your hands, covering your cough with your shirt sleeve - rather than your hand - and containing the virus or any flu by staying home from school.

"It's about trying to prevent, to control the spread, to limit the spread," said Eugene May, the representative of student support services with the school district. "If and when someone does become infected, it would be recognizable."

There have been more than 100 confirmed cases in the province to date, including three people who have been hospitalized.

Richard Turley, principal of St. Paul's Elementary in L'Anse au Loup, said the measures taken are wise, practices which should always be implemented, whether faced with the H1N1 virus or the regular flu.

"It's reinforcing healthy practice," Mr. Turley said. "We're trying doing what we can; it creates more awareness."

The first day of school there was a district-wide meeting with all the principals to outline the preventative measures and information being sent out to schools.

"This shouldn't be a panic, this should be, maybe we could do things a little bit differently," Mr. Turley said.

Mr. May agreed, stressing that these are merely preventative measures.

"The big thing with any school is that we know there's going to be a flu season, how bad it's going to be, we don't know," he said, adding hand sanitizers will also be sent to all schools in the district. "We want to be able work with parents, work with schools to try to limit the spread. All of the education materials that we sent out, all the measures that we are taking, are trying to limit the spread."