Flu symptoms

The following letter was recently sent to parents by d'Overbroeck's College Principal Sami Cohen, and is republished below.

Dear Parents

Students developing flu’ symptoms

We have recently reviewed our policy and practice in instances where a student develops flu’-like symptoms, and am writing to give you a summary of these.

At this time of the year, it is common for us all to be prone to the usual ragbag of colds, coughs and flu’s. Swine flu’ complicates the situation this year, especially since, as government guidance currently stands, doctors are unable to distinguish reliably between swine flu and ‘ordinary’ seasonal flu’. This is true even when a GP physically examines a patient; it is obviously even more so when the diagnosis is made over the telephone, which it commonly is at the moment. Where a patient is believed to be presenting with flu’-like symptoms, GPs are instructed to prescribe Tamiflu as a safety precaution.

It follows from all this that we can expect to see some increase in the incidence of illness in the coming weeks, and that it is going to be impossible to tell with any degree of certainty who has swine flu’ and who has ordinary seasonal flu’ or, in some cases, even just a heavy cold. Tamiflu is increasingly going to be prescribed as a precautionary measure, so this won’t in itself
be a conclusive differentiator.

In the last couple of days, a number of our students have developed flu’-like symptoms. A few have been prescribed Tamiflu. At the time of writing, these have all been relatively mild cases, and all the indications are that the students concerned will make a full recovery within a few days.

Our current policy in such instances is as follows:

Boarders who develop flu-like symptoms are being asked to stay as much as possible in their rooms where they will be looked after. They are being asked to have as little contact as possible with other students until they are well enough to return to lessons.

In the case of day students, we would ask parents to do the following (based on current government guidance):

• If your son or daughter develops flu-like symptoms, please keep them at home.
• Do not take them to the doctor’s surgery. Instead you should telephone the National Pandemic Flu helpline on 0800 1 513 100.
• You could, alternatively, ring your GP’s surgery for advice – but GP surgeries are expressly asking that patients with flu’-like symptoms should not physically go to the surgery.
• Obviously, please also telephone or email us to keep us informed.

The signs are that, from a health perspective, this could be a bit of a tricky winter for all of us. Our aim here is to maintain ‘business as usual’ as far as possible while ensuring that we are as well prepared as we can be for a possible increase in the number of people suffering from the dreaded ‘flu’-like symptoms’.

For further information, please see the latest advice from the Health Protection Agency.

Please don’t hesitate to telephone us if you would like to discuss any of this further.

With best regards

Sami Cohen
Principal

National Pandemic Flu Service now live

The National Pandemic Flu Service is now live. It is a new dedicated website and phoneline (0800 1 513 100 or 0800 1 513 200 (Textphone)) for people to check their symptoms and get a unique number which will give them access to antivirals if necessary.

'Flu Friends' information

We have been asked by the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust to circulate the documents linked below. The 'Flu Friends' information and form are intended to help you reduce the potential of spreading the swine flu virus and to prepare for managing it, in the event of your family or a friend catching it.

Please feel free to pass it on to others.


Flu Friends information



Flu Friends form

Updates from Oxfordshire authorities: no cause for concern

Latest guidance from the Thames Valley Local Resilience Forum (which is our local advisory body) is as follows:

'The WHO has recently raised the Swine Flu alert level to 6. This decision reflects the geographic spread of the virus and not its severity. The move to Phase 6 does not trigger any material change to our response in the UK. Actions taken in the UK are based on the situation here and our preparations are well advanced.'

Chair of the Local Resilience Forum (LFR) Working Group, Assistant Chief Constable, Brian Langston, said:

'It should be stressed that the impact has been considerably less than we had anticipated. Therefore the escalation to Phase 6 gives us no cause for concern.'

Dr. Jonathan McWilliam, Director of Public Health for Oxfordshire, explained:

'A pandemic is not related to the severity of the influenza, but to its spread. The World Health Organisation is responding largely to developments in Australia. We do expect to see an increase in the number of cases in the Thames Valley but not immediately and we are confident everything is in place to ensure we are able to deal with the situation.'

Nothing to report

We're glad to say that we've nothing to report on Swine Flu ... We'll continue to keep you up to date should this change.

No News ...

An update from Principal Sami Cohen

Swine flu' is clearly a case of no news is good news, and I am glad to say that I have nothing of substance to add today to what we have said in recent days.

Of course we continue to follow very closely the latest guidance as it emerges from public health authorities, both locally and nationally, from the Independent Schools Council and from the DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families). We all know from the press that there have been a few more confirmed cases of swine flu’ in the last few days, and that a few schools, mainly in the London area, have had to close. We also know, where people in this country have contracted the disease, the symptoms have so far been relatively mild.

This is all good news – but of course a flu’ pandemic can gather pace very quickly and so, while remaining calm and carrying on with business as usual, we have to be prepared and to have procedures in place that we can activate – and communicate – quickly should things take a sudden turn for the worse.

For this reason, we urge you to keep looking at these pages on our website. We will use them to communicate information, updates and instructions to parents, staff and students if there should there be any significant developments at any point.

In the meantime, you will almost certainly have gathered from the press that the government is working with the examination boards to formulate contingency plans to deal with a situation where a school had to close either during or in the immediate run-up to GCSE, AS and A level examinations.

In essence, the intention is that students who are unable to sit public examinations due to swine flu’ (either because they are personally affected or because their school has had to close) will be entitled to ‘special consideration’. This allows an awarding body to award a grade to a candidate who is unable to sit an examination for a bona fide reason, provided that there is sufficient evidence to make a reasonable judgement. Such evidence may come from marks awarded for coursework or for units taken in previous sittings.

This, incidentally, is no different from what would happen normally where a student is prevented from sitting one or more public examinations by an illness or an accident.

– Sami Cohen

Oxfordshire Flu update

Drawn from the daily meeting of the Oxfordshire Health Emergency Planning Group, 6th May

Following on from yesterday's report: there remains a single case of Influenza A H1N1 (Swine Flu) within Oxfordshire – the six year old girl.

Looking more widely, there has been one new confirmed case of Influenza A H1N1 (Swine Flu) in the Thames Valley on May 5. The new case, associated with travel to Mexico, is an adult in the Slough area.

View the statement from Berkshire East PCT

Oxfordshire influenza case and general advice

The College receives a daily briefing bulletin from the Oxfordshire NHS. The report for 4th May contained the following information that you may find useful:

(Drawn from the daily meeting of the Oxfordshire Health Emergency Planning Group)



Number of confirmed Oxfordshire cases

We can confirm that a six year old girl from Oxfordshire has tested positive for the influenza A (H1N1) virus. The girl has been treated at home and has now made a full recovery. She was treated with anti-viral drugs and responded well to treatment. We can confirm that she has recently visited Mexico.


In addition the following advice was stressed

General infection control practices and good respiratory hand hygiene can help to reduce transmission of all viruses, including the human swine influenza. This includes:

• Covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, using a tissue when possible (Catch it!)
• Disposing of dirty tissues promptly and carefully (Bin it!)
• Maintaining good basic hygiene, for example washing hands frequently with soap and water to reduce the spread of the virus from your hands to face or to other people (Kill it!)
• Cleaning hard surfaces (e.g. door handles) frequently using a normal cleaning product
• Making sure your children follow this advice
• It is important to stress that swine influenza virus is not transmitted by food. There is no risk of catching the illness from eating properly handled and cooked pork or pork products.

Swine flu: precautionary measures and keeping you informed

As you will be aware, the World Health Organisation has now put Swine Flu at phase 5. While we continue to hope that the disease will not take on serious pandemic proportions, it is obviously important that, as a school, we are as well prepared for all eventualities as we possibly can be.


Our approach is:

• to stay calm and maintain school life as normal
• to take common sense steps to encourage good hygiene practices so as to reduce the risk of the transmission of any kind of flu’ infection within the school community
• to ensure that we have in place clear procedures for dealing with any suspected or proven occurrences of the disease
• to keep parents, guardians, students and staff closely informed of any developments both externally and internally.

We will, of course, stay in contact with the College’s GP practice and track the latest guidance from the public health authorities.


How we will inform parents and guardians

In order to keep parents and guardians informed quickly and in real time, we have decided to add this section to our website (http://www.doverbroecks.com/health), which we will update daily, or at least as often as necessary. In it you will find information on what we are doing as a school as well as links to the latest information from the relevant national and local health departments.

If, in the next few days, your child should display flu like symptoms and you are in doubt about what to do, we recommend that:

• You keep your child at home in the first instance.
• You follow the latest government guidance. Currently, you are advised to ring NHS Direct.
• Telephone or email us to keep us informed.

Information will be displayed on this website from now on, so please do keep an eye on it on a regular basis.

In the meantime, I should just say that we have no particular reason to fear an outbreak of flu either in the College or in the Oxford area. These are all precautionary measures designed to ensure that, if things should change for the worse, we have procedures and channels of communication that we can put into use immediately.

With best regards,
Sami Cohen
Principal