City of Renton, schools, Valley Medical responding with swine-flu information, planning (información en español)
Published 7:04 pm Thursday, April 30, 2009
The City of Renton and the Renton School District are taking direction from the county’s health department in responding – if a local response is needed – to an outbreak of swine flu.
No cases of swine flu have been reported in Renton, according to the school district and the city. There are 28 “probable” cases of the flu in King County.
The 28 cases includes a 11-year-old fourth-grade boy at Renton Park Elementary School.
Swine flu, which is transmitted person-to-person, is characterized by a fever of more than 100 degrees, coughing, joint aches, severe headache and, in some cases, vomiting and diarrhea.
The latest on the outbreak in King County and Washington state is available here.
Deborah Needham, the City of Renton’s emergency services director, is calm but prepared and urging others to prepare, as well, at home, at school and at the workplace.
“I am not panicked and I am paid to be paranoid,” said Needham.
The city and school district have long-standing emergency plans to deal with everything from floods to snow to the flu. Just recently the city worked with Public Health – Seattle and King County to update the health-response chapter of the city’s plan, making the city’s a model for other cities, Needham said.
Visitors and patients at Valley Medical Center will see some heightened precautions and information about the flu.
The hospital is installing more than 20 “cough kiosks” at entrances, exits and other locations which will contain information about the swine flu and how to guard against contracting or spreading the virus, as well as masks, hand sanitizer and tissues, according to spokeswoman Kim Blakely.
The hospital also will have multilingual flu information from the state Department of Health available at its admitting stations and in its clinics.
“We are actively implementing our internal processes and procedures to ensure that we can meet the needs of the community and our staff should the pandemic affect our area,” Blakely said.
The hospital’s Infection Prevention team is monitoring the federal Centers for Disease Control and the state and Seattle/King County health departments for new information regarding the flu and the outbreak and will update the hospital’s Web site daily.
The city and school district will follow the recommendations of the “experts” at the health department, according to Needham and the school district’s spokesman, Randy Matheson. A middle school in Seattle was closed because a student there is one of the 10 “probable” cases of swine flu in the county.
Matheson said the top district administrators discussed on Thursday the district’s procedures and policies to respond to a flu outbreak. Those details include how to make up any lost days and how to pay district staff for days off work.
“We are more concerned after the school closure in Seattle than we were yesterday,” Matheson said Thursday. “It drives home the message that this is real and it is preading quickly and school disdtricts need to be prepared for it.”
Like the City of Renton, the school district will take direction from the health department, which could include a recommendation to close a school or the district. A final decision on a closure would rest with the school district administration, Matheson said. A principal cannot make the decision to close a school, he said.
The Seattle school is closed for seven days, which is the length of time the flu virus can survive outside a host.
The flu outbreak likely began in Mexico and spread to the United States and beyond. Because of those origins, some teachers are expressing precautionary concern about students newly arrived from Mexico, Matheson said.
The answer is no, there is no concern – unless they are showing signs of the flu, he said.
First, parents shouldn’t send a child to school if he or she is sick, Matheson said. If a child becomes sick at school, the teacher should contact the principal, who in turn would contact the parents, he said.
A school nurse could examine a child and, if concerned, could call the health department, he said. So far, there have been no calls from the district’s nursing staff, he said Thursday.
The district has sent home a letter with flu information to parents in both Spanish and English.
Management of the response to the flu and potential outbreak is under the operational control of the health department. The county’s Office of Emergency Management is regularly briefing emergency managers in cities, as has the health department, according to Needham.
For example, Needham knew of the announcement about the initial six suspected cases in Washington state before the official announcement Wednesday night.
“We feel we are getting a reassuring message from Public Health,” Needham said.
Like all governments, Renton and the school district are urging people to take precautions to avoid the flu and to prevent them from spreading it to others.
One precautionary message that apparently hasn’t sunk in is don’t cough into your hands. Then, potentially you are leaving behind a germ on everything you touch, Needham said.
Instead, cough into the crook of your elbow or into your shoulder, she said.
Guidance for how to respond to a large flu outbreak is in the city’s Emergency Management Plan, which includes a chapter on health emergencies. The city also is working on updating its plan to ensure that all critical daily operations of the city continue in a disaster, Needham said.
The city has the authority to close city buildings if that becomes necessary, she said. Such an action could come following a recommendation by the health department, she said.
Members of the City Council and administrators also have participated in “table-top exercises” designed to help them hone their decision-making skills in a real emergency, Needham said.
That experience could help if top officials faced the prospect of a “dynamic decision,” one that has to be made quickly based on changing conditions, she said.
RENTON SCHOOL DISTRICT LETTERS IN SPANISH, ENGLISH
SPANISH Swine Flu Letter to Families and Staff-4!2!09
RENTON SCHOOL DISTRICT SWINE FLU LETTER
HECHOS DOMINANTES DE LA GRIPE DE LOS CERDOS
2009 Swine Flu Facts-Chinese-5!1!09
2009 Swine Flu Facts-Korean-5!1!09
2009 Swine Flu Facts-Russian-5!1!09
2009 Swine Flu Facts-Vietnamese-5!1!09
