Swine flu fears abate

Mayo swine flu fears abate


Breaffy student makes full recovery but confusion remains over second case

Edwin McGreal

THE girl at the centre of the case of swine flu at Breaffy National School has made a full recovery.
However, there was less certainty yesterday (Monday) about a second case in the county, which was confirmed by medics as far back as last Thursday, before the Breaffy case was reported.
The second case is believed to affect a cousin of the child who attends Breaffy NS but despite numerous attempts by The Mayo News to obtain information from the HSE, the organisation were unwilling to provide a specific location for any case, expect for the Breaffy NS pupil.
The Mayo News has learned though that the second case of swine flu is also located in Mayo, and the child affected is believed to have brought the virus in from the United States. It is not clear if this child has made a full recovery.
News of the location of the Breaffy case only became apparent due to the need to put in place procedures for those at the school who had close contact with the child in question.
Meanwhile, news on the well-being of the Breaffy case emerged yesterday (Monday) after a weekend of uncertainty in the village outside Castlebar following the announcement on Friday that a case of Influenza A (H1N1), otherwise known as swine flu, had been confirmed as having afflicted the seven-year-old girl, who is in first class in St John’s NS in Breaffy.
In a measure described as ‘precautionary’, the 27 classmates of the girl along with three adult staff members - her teacher, a care assistant and a resource teacher - were all given anti-viral tablets and advised to stay away from the school for the rest of the term, which concludes for the summer holidays this Thursday.
However the rest of the school attempted to return to normal yesterday morning. Some parents opted to keep their children at home after the scare. School principal George Moran was relieved that the girl at the centre of the case had been given a clean bill of health.
“We’re very pleased with that,” he told The Mayo News. “The child is at home and has been treated at home and cared for very successfully. The pupils in that class and three adults have taken precautions and stayed at home this week. These are merely precautions and are just to be careful.”
Parents of children in the class in question received a text message at 8.32am on Friday morning that there was a confirmed case in a child in that class, advising them not to send their children to school.
By mid morning parents of children in other classes received a text message (see box on Page 4) alerting them to the news and many availed of the opportunity to withdraw their children from the school.
Two information meetings were held on Friday afternoon, where firstly parents of children from other classes had a questions and answers session with Public Health officials before parents of children from the class in question were also allowed to avail of a Q & A session before being presented with Tamiflu anti-viral tablets for their children.
Suspicions of a swine flu case first arose on Thursday and a positive result was confirmed to school principal Moran on the Friday morning. He, together with teaching staff, had been put on standby on Thursday night.
One of those put on standby was Sheila O’Shea, teacher of the child at the centre of the case. Speaking on Monday after news of the child’s recovery had emerged, she expressed her relief before describing a ‘dote’ of a girl.
“I feel a sense of relief that she is okay. All that is important is her welfare and that of everyone else from the class.
”She’s a gorgeous thing, a lovely little girl, a dote. She’s normally a perfectly healthy young girl and she was just unfortunate that she came into contact (with the flu).”
The girl was last at school on Wednesday last - she was off sick on Thursday - and it is tomorrow, a week from when her classmates and teachers last came into contact with her, that they will be given the all-clear.
They had been told to watch for symptoms such as a high temperature, sore throat and fatigue. At the information meeting parents were told that someone would have to be in ‘close contact’ with a carrier for a period of at least four hours to have any chance of picking up the virus.