With 38 percent of the Bromfield seventh-grade class categorized with flu-like symptoms on Nov. 3, it looks like H1N1 and/or the seasonal flu has come calling in a big way this fall. School Nurse Colleen Nigzus reported that a total of 54 Bromfield students were absent, all with flu-like symptoms, and at least six of the 20 students who were absent from the elementary school on that date also seemed to have the flu.
It couldn’t be at a worse time, says Jim Garreffi, director of public health at Nashoba Associated Boards of Health (NABH), which functions as the agent for the elected boards of health in its member communities. The H1N1 flu vaccine was licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Sept. 15, and as of Oct. 28, Massachusetts had received only 404,500 of the 3.5 million doses it was expecting. As of Nov. 3, only about 10 percent of the vaccine supply ordered by the government had been made available nationally.
Locally, NABH received 100 doses to cover all 14 of its member towns. “That’s 6.7 doses per town,” Garreffi said, hardly enough to cover all the health-care professionals in those towns.
Garreffi said he was instructed by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to tell the boards of health in NAHB member towns to select the people in their towns who would be most appropriate to receive the vaccine. “We’re trying to do the best possible job with the limited supplies of vaccine that we have,” he said. Harvard’s supply was administered by the Nashoba Nursing Service, a part of NABH, to two school nurses and four emergency medical technicians.
H1N1 vaccination clinics originally scheduled for November in Massachusetts have been cancelled “indefinitely,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. NABH is being told that large quantities of the vaccine will be available in December, Garreffi said. His agency’s goal is to have a public clinic in each of the area towns, but anticipating when it will have enough vaccine to schedule them is challenging.
No one knows if the student absences in Harvard represent the “tip of the iceberg” of the so-called pandemic in this region or if it reflects the normal spike in seasonal flu that school officials expect each year. “We’re far from being at a critical point,” says Schools Superintendent Tom Jefferson. While the seventh-graders are located in their own wing and most frequently associate with each other, they do also mix in public spaces such as buses, the library, and the cafeteria.
Two schools in Grafton and Stow have had to close (in Grafton because the staff was so hard hit), therefore Harvard school officials are being watchful. The policy is to keep the schools open as long as possible, and to take a wait-and-see attitude. “The key,” says Jefferson, “is having the staff, and we’re holding the ground.” He credits Nigzus and elementary school nurse Susan Veno as a great team in the effort.
As for what it will take to close down one or more of Harvard’s schools, Jefferson says he is holding to the guidelines established by the commissioner of education, which were first issued in August and re-issued in late October. “I can’t say when the magic number [of cases] is. The decision will be done on an individual basis.”
Meanwhile, Nigzus continues to work on educating students about techniques to help avoid catching the flu. She has kept parents informed by way of informational packets sent home with students, newsletters, e-mails, and ConnectEd calls.
