Health News

Nurse's Note - February 2012

Healthy Tips for a Healthy Life Style

The rise in childhood obesity can lead to serious health problems. Obesity can lead to:
•   Heart disease—elevated cholesterol, high blood pressure and abnormal glucose tolerance.
•   Type 2 diabetes has increased in recent years among children and adolescents.
•   Asthma—breathing problems due to narrowing or blocked airway.
•   Social discrimination—obesity can lead to decreased self esteem, which in turn can interfere with academic and social functioning.

What can a parent do?
•   Balance caloric intake from food/beverages with calories used through activity and natural growth.
•   Encourage plenty of fruit, vegetables, and whole grains.
•   Low fat dairy and milk products.
•   Lean meat, poultry, beans, fish.
•   Serve reasonable portions.
•   Encourage drinking water.
•   Limit sugary beverages and saturated fats.
•   When dining out eat half the dinner, save the remaining half for another meal.
•   Serve on individual plates.
•   Snack if you are hungry, this will help avoid overeating at the next meal.
•   Store tempting foods out of sight.
•   Divide large packages into individual portions. People tend to eat more from a large package.

—Kathy Carson R.N., School Nurse

Free Varicella (Chickenpox) Vaccine
The Butler County Health Department is providing Varicella (Chickenpox) Vaccine FREE OF CHARGE for all children through age 18 who need either their 1st or 2nd dose of Varicella. There are no income eligibility requirements to receive the vaccine. Schools require two doses of the Varicella Vaccine for all students grades K-2 & 7. The 2nd dose is recommended for all children by the Kansas Department of Health & Environment Immunization Program.

Varicella Vaccine is available at the following Health Department Clinics:

El Dorado Office, 206 N. Griffith
Mondays – 8:00 – 11:30 a.m. & 1:00 – 4:30 p.m.
Last Friday of the Month – 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.
Augusta Clinic, 2100 Ohio, Suite B
Wednesdays – 1:30 – 4:30 p.m.

The Varicella Vaccine is provided by the Butler County Health Department and funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the Kansas Department of Health & Environment. For further information contact the Butler County Health Department at 321-3400, 320-0365 or 1-800-940-6083.

Dear Parents, As you may know, flu can be easily spread from person to person and public concern has heightened with news of new types of viruses, such as H1N1. We are taking steps to reduce the spread of flu in USD 490. We want to keep the schools open to students and functioning in a normal manner during this flu season. But, we need your help to do this.

We are working with the Butler County Health Department to monitor flu conditions and make decisions about the best steps to take concerning schools. We will keep you updated with new information as it becomes available.

If the flu becomes severe this school year, we may take additional steps to prevent the spread such as:

•   conducting active fever and flu symptom screening of students and staff as they arrive at school,
•   making changes to increase the space between people such as moving desks farther apart and postponing class trips, or
•   providing alternate methods of delivering instruction to students who must miss school for extended periods of illness.

For now we are doing everything we can to keep our schools functioning as usual. Here are a few things you can do to help.

•   Teach your children to wash their hands often with soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizers.
•   Teach your children not to share personal items like drinks, food or unwashed utensils, and to cover coughs and sneezes with tissues, or cover coughs or sneezes using the elbow, arm or sleeve instead of the hand when a tissue is unavailable.
•   Know the signs and symptoms of the flu. Symptoms of the flu include fever (100 degrees Fahrenheit or greater), cough, sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, and feeling very tired. Some people may also vomit or have diarrhea.
•   Keep sick children at home for at least 24 hours after they no longer have fever or do not have signs of fever, without using fever-reducing drugs. Keeping children with a fever at home will reduce the number of people who may get infected.
•   Do not send children to school if they are sick. Any children who are determined to be sick while at school will be sent home.

For more information, contact your school nurse, the Butler County Health Department or visit www.flu.gov for the most current information about the flu. We will notify you of any additional changes to our school’s strategy to prevent the spread of flu.

Sincerely,
Sue Givens, Superintendent

PERTUSSIS (WHOOPING COUGH): Onset 7-10 days, but can occur up to 21 days after exposure to infected person. Pertussis is communicable throughout the incubation period and for approximately 3 weeks following onset if untreated. If treated, infectiousness usually extends 5 days or less after onset of therapy. Symptoms include runny nose, sneezing, low-grade fever, thick mucous, a cough lasting at least 2 weeks with one of the following: inspiratory “whoop” or vomiting after coughing, and exhaustion. If treatment is initiated within 7 days of exposure and no signs or symptoms are present, student may return to school after 24 hours of antibiotic therapy. If symptoms are present and no treatment is initiated the student is excluded for 21 days after exposure and symptoms subside. Students not current with immunization guidelines will be excluded from school for 21 days after exposure and must have a physician’s release to return to school thereafter.

MUMPS: an infection of the salivary glands caused by a virus. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle ache, and swelling of the glands close to the jaw. Transmission of mumps occurs through coughing and sneezing by airborne particles, or through direct contact with infected droplets or saliva. Mumps is about as contagious as influenza and rubella, but less so than measles or chickenpox. It is generally transmitted from about 3 days before symptoms appear to about 4 days after, although the virus has been isolated from saliva as early as 7 days before to as late as 9 days after onset of symptoms. Complications of mumps can lead to meningitis, inflammation of the testicles or ovaries, inflammation of the pancreas and deafness (usually permanent).
Exclusion: Persons diagnosed with mumps are excluded from school for 9 days following diagnosis. Those without the compliant immunizations (1 MMR after 12 months of age and a second MMR before entering school) are excluded from school based on a range of days during which exposure could have occurred (i.e., starting the 12th day of exposure following the first day of exposure and extending to the 25th day following the last day of exposure). The MMR vaccination is recommended for all exposed persons who do not have the proper immunizations. Persons born before 1957, or those who have had a confirmed case of the mumps are considered to have immunity.

Please be aware that the district may exclude your child from school for 25 days if your child’s immunizations are not up to date. As soon as your child is up to date with his/her MMR (Measles/Mumps/Rubella) immunizations they may come back to school. Kansas Department of Health and Environment strongly recommends two doses of mumps-containing vaccine for all persons for whom vaccine is recommended.

Preventing the Flu

There are two very important things you can do to help prevent the spread of flu: practice good hand washing and stay home when you are sick.

Our school nurses are a ready resource and may be contacted for additional information about prevention and treatment. Some other helpful resources can be found at the following websites:
http://www.kdheks.gov/H1N1/
http://www.cdc.gov/
http://www.cdc.gov/H1N1FLU/
http://www.flu.gov/

Required Immunizations

• Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis (DTaP): five (5) doses required. Four doses acceptable if dose 4 given on or after the 4th birthday. A single dose of Tdap required at grades 7-9 grade if no previous history of Tdap vaccination regardless of interval since the last Td vaccine.
• Poliomyelitis (IPV/OPV): four (4) doses required. One dose required after age 4 regardless of the number of previous doses, with a 6 month minimum interval from the previous dose
• Measles, Mumps, Rubella: two (2) doses required.
• Hepatitis B: three (3) doses required through grade 11.
• Varicella (chickenpox): two doses required for grades K-2 and 7; one dose required for grades 3-6 and 8-11 unless history of varicella disease documented by a licensed physician. Two doses are currently recommended by the ACIP for all ages.
• Haemophilus influenzae type b (HIB): three doses required for children less than 5 yrs of age in early childhood programs. Total doses needed for series completion is dependent on the type of vaccine and the age of the child when doses given.
• Pneumococcal conjugate (PCV7): four doses required for children less than 5 yrs of age in early childhood programs. Total doses needed dependent on the age of the child when doses given.
• Hepatitis A: two doses required for children less than 5 yrs of age in early childhood programs.

[Additional Immunization Information]

Vision, hearing and dental screenings are provided each year at selected grade levels and upon request. The school nurse and nurse aides will notify a parent only if screening results are not within normal limits.

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In order for children to receive medicine while at school, the forms (at left) must be appropriately filled out and returned to the school prior to its administration. Each request expires at the end of the current school year.