Loon
Inactive
http://www.themorningsun.com/articl...4f0dcd23aef5a898492154.txt?viewmode=fullstory
News.UPDATED: Rapid spread of stomach virus causes MP school district to cancel class Thursday and Friday
Published: Wednesday, January 11, 2012
By RYAN BERLIN
Sun Staff Writer
Mt. Pleasant School District will be closed Thursday and Friday due to a virus that has spread around to more than 200 students.
“We believe it is Norovirus but that hasn’t been confirmed yet,” Superintendent Mike Pung said.
“It started yesterday when we had about 40 students who were out sick and today there are 206 absences.”
Norovirus is extremely contagious and because of the constant person-to-person contact, Pung, with guidance from the health department, decided to cancel class for the entire district both Thursday and Friday. There will also be no class because it is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Most everybody can contract the virus and it is spread through the oral and fecal route as well as respiratory droplets.
“This is a bug that generally speaking everybody is susceptible to and it usually lasts 36 to 72 hours,” said Dr. Robert Graham, Director of the Isabella County Central Michigan District Health Department.
“Unlike other viruses that affect the gastrointestinal tract, Norovirus is spread by the fecal/ oral route and also spread by respiratory droplets. For example, if somebody vomits and it produces a small plume of body fluids and if somebody comes in contact with that it can spread that way.
“Norovirus usually has a really high attack rate. It’s not uncommon to have 50 percent or more people in a group come down with the symptoms if they are exposed to it.”
Because Norovirus is extremely contagious, Graham and Pung decided the best action to take would be to close the entire school district down for two days.
While the buildings are closed, they will be cleaned and sanitized from top to bottom in hopes of eliminating any further spread of the virus. Continued...
“The superintendent and I discussed this at length and because it is highly contagious and with the MLK holiday coming up we thought we could interrupt the transmission,” Graham said.
“Instead of waiting for it to come to us we figured we would be proactive so there are no lingering kids who are out with the flu.”
The decision was made to close all the district building before the virus really got out of hand and spread to other students at the higher grade schools.
“We began to see today at some of the other schools what we saw yesterday at Ganiard,” Pung said. Our main concern is the health and safety of our students first and foremost.
“We are going to have our contracted cleaning crew clean and sanitize the buildings, doorknobs, desktops and keyboards with good old fashioned bleach.”
Classes will resume on Tuesday, Jan. 17.
The outbreak seems to be concentrated only to Mt. Pleasant. Ithaca School District had only a few students out sick, said Nathan Bootz, Ithaca Schools superintendent.
“This goes around every year,” he said. “When we get under 80 percent attendance, that’s when we have serious discussions about closing the school – 75 percent is the cutoff. We’re nowhere near that.”
Luce Road Early Childhood Learning Center in Alma a few of the kindergarten and first grade students are out sick but the attendance is at 95 percent, said Donnalynn Ingersoll, principal.
Breckenridge Superintendent Sean McNatt said attendance is running at 96 percent on Wednesday.
News.UPDATED: Rapid spread of stomach virus causes MP school district to cancel class Thursday and Friday
Published: Wednesday, January 11, 2012
By RYAN BERLIN
Sun Staff Writer
Mt. Pleasant School District will be closed Thursday and Friday due to a virus that has spread around to more than 200 students.
“We believe it is Norovirus but that hasn’t been confirmed yet,” Superintendent Mike Pung said.
“It started yesterday when we had about 40 students who were out sick and today there are 206 absences.”
Norovirus is extremely contagious and because of the constant person-to-person contact, Pung, with guidance from the health department, decided to cancel class for the entire district both Thursday and Friday. There will also be no class because it is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Most everybody can contract the virus and it is spread through the oral and fecal route as well as respiratory droplets.
“This is a bug that generally speaking everybody is susceptible to and it usually lasts 36 to 72 hours,” said Dr. Robert Graham, Director of the Isabella County Central Michigan District Health Department.
“Unlike other viruses that affect the gastrointestinal tract, Norovirus is spread by the fecal/ oral route and also spread by respiratory droplets. For example, if somebody vomits and it produces a small plume of body fluids and if somebody comes in contact with that it can spread that way.
“Norovirus usually has a really high attack rate. It’s not uncommon to have 50 percent or more people in a group come down with the symptoms if they are exposed to it.”
Because Norovirus is extremely contagious, Graham and Pung decided the best action to take would be to close the entire school district down for two days.
While the buildings are closed, they will be cleaned and sanitized from top to bottom in hopes of eliminating any further spread of the virus. Continued...
“The superintendent and I discussed this at length and because it is highly contagious and with the MLK holiday coming up we thought we could interrupt the transmission,” Graham said.
“Instead of waiting for it to come to us we figured we would be proactive so there are no lingering kids who are out with the flu.”
The decision was made to close all the district building before the virus really got out of hand and spread to other students at the higher grade schools.
“We began to see today at some of the other schools what we saw yesterday at Ganiard,” Pung said. Our main concern is the health and safety of our students first and foremost.
“We are going to have our contracted cleaning crew clean and sanitize the buildings, doorknobs, desktops and keyboards with good old fashioned bleach.”
Classes will resume on Tuesday, Jan. 17.
The outbreak seems to be concentrated only to Mt. Pleasant. Ithaca School District had only a few students out sick, said Nathan Bootz, Ithaca Schools superintendent.
“This goes around every year,” he said. “When we get under 80 percent attendance, that’s when we have serious discussions about closing the school – 75 percent is the cutoff. We’re nowhere near that.”
Luce Road Early Childhood Learning Center in Alma a few of the kindergarten and first grade students are out sick but the attendance is at 95 percent, said Donnalynn Ingersoll, principal.
Breckenridge Superintendent Sean McNatt said attendance is running at 96 percent on Wednesday.
it's heading your way! 
I carry huge bottles of Germ-X in my van and every time I come out of a store i lather up in the stuff and make hubby do it too. I hate signing for drugs for my mom at the pharmacy with that black pen thing. Just think of how many sick people have touched it and I'm sure it's never sanitized not to mention the shopping carts etc. I always wipe mine down. I have Germ-X all over the house too and even carry it in my purse. We're retired and home all the time and are stocked up pretty good so I think I'll just sit here and admire the winter wonderland outside my window. We got about two or three inches last night and the view is breathtaking. Glad I don't have young kids any more to bring home the flu. They are the worst carriers of those virus.
