HOULTON, Maine — With this year’s flu season on track to equal or surpass the 2014-2015 flu season, according to the Centers for Disease Control, health care facilities, schools and other educational institutions are taking precautions to keep students safe.
Last week, seven children across the nation died of the flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control. That brought this season’s total to 37. In 2014-2015, there were 148 pediatric deaths — which the agency tracks individually, not by estimates as it does with death totals.
Carol McIntyre of Caribou homeschools her two children, James, 9, and Sarah, 7. She said that both of her children have contracted illnesses this year by going to the library and by playing sports at the local recreation center.
“Thankfully, they haven’t been too bad,” she said. “I worry about my friends’ children, though, who have been out of school for up to a week. I am glad I homeschool my children at moments like this. They don’t sit in germ filled classrooms or touch door knobs that 20 other children have touched multiple times a day.”
Shannon Stewart is the school nurse in SAD 70 in Hodgdon, overseeing Mill Pond School and Hodgdon High School. She said Wednesday that there have been “isolated” cases of the flu in the district. The one thing that has prevented the spread of the flu, she said, has been parents.
“The parents have really been great about keeping their kids home when they have had flu symptoms,” she said. “The janitors also have been excellent in wiping down all the doorknobs and the doors with hospital grade cleaning supplies. As a result, we have only had six cases so far this winter.”
At Houlton High School, Principal Marty Bouchard also said that the school is not experiencing a high rate of absences.
“The number fluctuates day to day,” he said. “But we wanted to be proactive, so we started early with a protocol of wiping down the desks with cleaning supplies more than usual.”
Darrell Crandall, sheriff of the Aroostook County Jail, said that “knock on wood,” they were not experiencing an epidemic of the flu at the facility as of yet.
Linda Mastro, director of the health center at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, said UMPI students just returned from the winter break and some brought with them fevers and body aches and headaches. They were quarantined in their rooms and had meals delivered to them from the dining commons. They were checked on by university staff to make sure they were fever free before they returned to classes. All students were offered free flu vaccines this year.
Maine health officials say 28 residents have died from the flu this season.
