Update for 9/13/09

In this update I will attempt to clarify some misinformation that has been circulating in Barrow County and provide a brief summary of some information from the CDC website.
In the party game "telephone" a group sits in a story and shares a short story around the circle. The object of the game is to start a story, whisper it from one person to another around the circle as accurately as possible and compare the version of the story that the last person heard to the one that the first person heard. Most of the time, the final version is very different from the original. This game illustrates the importance of getting information from the source because the further away from the source one chooses to get information the more likely that the information will be distorted.
This week, I heard on more than one occasion a "story" that was inaccurate. The "story" claims that Barrow County Schools will be closed if we reach a specified attendance threshold. Most versions of the story claim the attendance threshold is 10%. This is not true. There are no plans to close schools when absences reach a pre-specified threshold. We are monitoring student and staff attendance on a daily basis. We are reporting to the local health department any time a school reaches or exceeds 10% in absences. Starting this week we will begin reporting this information to the Georgia Division of Public Health. Within the last 7-8 days we have had several schools that have exceeded 10% absences and each time we have reported this data as we said we would. At this time there are no plans to close school. We are working very hard to keep schools open. If the situation changes we are prepared to rethink this position.
On Tuesday, September 8th, the Northeast Georgia Health District issued a press release to summarize the current with the flu in the health district. This is an excellent summary that I have posted to the Barrow County Schools H1N1 Information page (see link). I recommend that everyone read it.
Below is a summary of the most recent key indicators as described on the CDC website:
• Visits to doctors for influenza-like illness have been increasing over the past four weeks and are higher than expected this time of year.
• Hospitalization rates are similar to or lower than hospitalization rates for seasonal flu but are higher than expected in the summer.
• The proportion of deaths for pneumonia and influenza has been low and within the normal range for the summer months.
• Eleven states, including Georgia and most other states in the south east, are reporting widespread flu activity which is very unusual for August and September.
I will be participating in two H1N1 information opportunities this week and will update the blog with the information gained in these sessions as soon as I can.