While stressing that most A(H1N1) cases so far have been mild, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan warned that the new influenza strain colloquially referred to as “swine flu” is “unstoppable“. Chan issued the warning during her opening remarks of the two-day global A(H1N1) summit that started Thursday in Cancun, Mexico.
LATEST UPDATE: This morning, Monday, June 22, we decided not to let Sam go to school. Now we’ve learned that St. Paul Pasig has decided to close the school until June 29, after all.
UPDATE: abs-cbnNews.com has published a story this afternoon about St. Paul Pasig suspending classes. I’ve also learned from someone whose daughter goes to St. Paul Makati that the school suspended classes today due to A(H1N1) and will be closed for seven days. Lourdes School of Mandaluyong suspended classes yesterday due to its first confirmed A(H1N1) case and will resume classes after 10 days, like other schools.
What’s so different about St. Paul Pasig that makes school officials think they should resume classes after just three days and open this Monday? It’s not just about disinfecting school facilities. The point of the quarantine is that symptoms manifest in 7 to 10 days, and that’s the period for observing everyone exposed to the virus.
Yesterday, June 18, my 7-year-old daughter Sam’s school, St. Paul College, Pasig (the site is under maintenance), slipped a small note to parents in the students’ diaries.
Here’s a pic I took using my mobile phone since I don’t have a scanner. You can click on the photo for a larger image.
Here’s what it says in case you can’t view the image:
June 18, 2009
Dear Parents:
This is to inform you that we have 1 confirmed case of AH1N1 in the Grade School Department. In this regard, we would like to inform you that we are calling off classes tomorrow, Friday, June 19, 2009 to give time for our maintenance staff to sanitize the classrooms. Classes will resume on Monday, June 22, 2009.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
MA. ROSABEL P. ESTAVILLO, MD
School Physician
Noted by:
SISTER TERESITA BARICAUA, SPC
Directress
I really don’t understand why her school plans to just close for one day (and of course over the weekend) and resume classes on Monday, when other schools which have gone on self-quarantine when they had their first confirmed A(H1N1) case closed for 10 days.
We’ve been trying to call up the school since yesterday, but the number is always either just on voice mail, or unavailable.
We’ve called up the Department of Health to ask about the guidelines, and yup, they have been recommending 10 days of self-quarantine. The person on the DOH public hotline said they would contact the school. In the same breath, however, we were informed that, apparently, the DOH can only recommend these health guidelines, but it’s up to school authorities to implement these. They can’t force schools to follow the guidelines.
I don’t get it. If this is true, then what’s the point of issuing health guidelines? These aren’t just arbitrary rules based on someone’s whim. Here’s the PDF of the DOH memorandum posted on their site.
Remember how the opening of classes for college students was moved by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) by 10 days? The opening of classes for private schools in the elementary and high school levels still pushed through, since they’re under the jurisdiction of the Department of Education, not CHED.
The thing is, the DepEd didn’t issue any guidelines, saying it’s up to school administrators to decide if they would postpone the opening of classes. So of course, when we parents asked the school, we were told that they would push through with the opening, since DepEd didn’t issue any order.
So where does the buck stop?
Let’s be clear about this: I’m all for sobriety when it comes to A(H1N1), and I would be the first to say that people should not panic. But the urge to downplay the impact of A(H1N1) as a reaction to sometimes sensationalistic stories and misconceptions should not be an excuse for being irresponsible and not doing what we can to prevent the spread of the virus.
