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Swine Flu Vaccine Reaches D.C. Area; High School in Laurel With 100 Absences Is First in Region to Close for Disinfection

The Washington Post October 7, 2009 | Nelson Hernandez Thousands of doses of swine flu vaccine began arriving in the Washington region Tuesday night as a private high school in Laurel became the first in the area to close for disinfection after more than 100 students missed class, many with complaints of illness.

Stephen J. Edmonds, principal and president of St. Vincent Pallotti High School, said there had been five confirmed cases of H1N1 influenza, known as swine flu, among students at the school since the beginning of the school year. Edmonds said about 100 of the school’s 500 students missed class Tuesday “for various reasons,” including swine flu and seasonal flu.

Because of the high absentee rate, Edmonds ordered the school closed Wednesday to allow professional cleaners to disinfect surfaces touched by students.

“It’s just precautionary,” Edmonds said. “We want to make sure we provide the safest environment for the students.” Meanwhile, health officials in Maryland, Virginia and the District reported that they had begun receiving the first of nearly 200,000 vaccine doses the three jurisdictions have ordered.

The received doses are a nasal spray that uses a weakened version of the live virus. It is recommended for use only in healthy people ages 2 to 49 and should not be used by pregnant women. website maryland general hospital

The first doses of the vaccine will largely be used by health- care workers at the greatest risk of exposure to the virus. As more doses arrive, including an injectable version, the vaccine will be made available to other groups, particularly young children, pregnant women and people with underlying health problems. site maryland general hospital

“It’s just the beginning,” said Frances Phillips, the deputy secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. “This is the first baby step to a sustained marathon.” In Baltimore late Tuesday afternoon, state officials walked a few doses of the vaccine from their offices to Maryland General Hospital and began administering them to health-care workers to show reporters how the spray would be given.

By the end of the week, about 60,500 Maryland residents will receive the vaccine.

“We’ll keep pushing out doses until everyone who wants a vaccination gets one,” said Greg K. Reed, who runs Maryland’s Center for Immunization on behalf of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We’ll be getting shipments on almost a daily basis.” The CDC estimates that 3.4 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine will be used in Maryland by the first week in January, Reed said.

In Laurel, Phillips said the closure of Pallotti was the first case of a school closing in the Washington region. A school in Baltimore closed briefly earlier this school year when too many staff members were sick to operate the school, she said.

Edmonds, the head of Pallotti, said no students had become seriously ill. He speculated that at least some students could be using “the situation to their advantage” by taking the day off if they had minor symptoms of a cold or virus.

“High school students are very ingenious,” he said.

Edmonds also noted that some doctors are no longer testing students to determine whether they have H1N1 or seasonal flu, so the number of infected students could be more than five. Both types have similar symptoms.

When the H1N1 pandemic erupted last spring, some schools in the Washington region were closed for several days as a result of confirmed cases. As it became clear that the virus was no more severe than seasonal flu, most health agencies decided that it was unnecessary to close schools except for when the virus made it impossible to operate a school.

Several U.S. schools have been closed this school year because of widespread infection.

The Baltimore Sun contributed to this report.

Nelson Hernandez