H1N1 isn't only germ in town

Call it the classroom combo.

The H1N1 flu is hitting kids, as are the typical fall illnesses: colds, sinus infections and diarrhea.

“The other stuff has not gone away,'' said Dr. Anne O'Keefe of the Douglas County Health Department.

That means more students than normal are out of class. In Douglas County, about twice as many schoolchildren were out last week as were gone the same time a year ago.

All three of Janelle Sorensen's kids aren't feeling well.

Twelve-year-old Jacob developed a cough earlier this month. Mom thought it was H1N1 at first. Turned out it was a mild form of pneumonia, enough to knock him out of school for three days. Her two other children, ages 3 and 8, have runny noses and coughs.

“It seems like there's a lot more going around,'' said the Plattsmouth mom, a nurse.

Absences also may be on the rise because parents are following advice to keep kids with flu-like symptoms home, said Diane Ostrowski, spokeswoman for the Council Bluffs school district.

In past years, parents might have sent children with a cough to school. Now school officials are telling parents to keep those children home.

In the Omaha Public Schools, several schools have reported above-normal absences, said Sharon Wade, OPS supervisor of health services. The normal absence rate is less than 10 percent.

At Elkhorn Ridge Middle School, 104 of 660 students — close to 16 percent — were out Monday, said Superintendent Steve Baker. The number dropped to the 80s the next day.

Overall, Baker said, his school district hasn't been hard hit. “A few here, and a few there.”

Dr. Heather Zimmerman, pediatrician at Boys Town Pediatrics, said the six-doctor clinic is swamped. Kids with H1N1 plus those with common colds are being brought to the clinic, near 139th and Pacific Streets.

Although local numbers of H1N1 cases began to rise in mid-August, the clinic wasn't hit with lots of H1N1 patients and phone calls until a couple of weeks ago.

Dr. Amy Lacroix, a University of Nebraska Medical Center pediatrician, said she is seeing more patients than normal for mid-October. There are H1N1 flu patients in addition to those with colds, croup and stomach virus.

Part of the problem, she said, is fear over H1N1.

Nurses are getting “tons of calls” from people worried about H1N1, Lacroix said.

She said normally healthy people generally don't have to see a doctor unless they are having trouble breathing, suffering with a terrible headache, struggling to keep fluids down because of diarrhea or vomiting, or displaying odd or incoherent behavior.

“People are scared,” Lacroix said, “and we don't have a reason for them to be right now.”

Contact the writer:

444-1122, michael.oconnor@owh.com

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