Fall and Winter Flu Information

The fall and winter flu season is now upon us and Northfield Mount Hermon continues to follow best practices to make sure neither seasonal flu nor novel 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) become a serious problem in our community. For those students who have parental permission, health services has been giving out seasonal flu inoculations. Health services held their last seasonal flu clinic on Oct. 1. If your student has not been vaccinated, we would encourage you to set up an appointment to receive a flu shot with your primary care physician. To keep students as safe and healthy as possible, NMH is also taking the following steps:

School Visits – We welcome a large number of campus visitors during the Family Days in October. Families are encouraged to visit NMH, but we would like to remind everyone that anyone with a fever greater than 100 F or 38 C should stay home until 24 hours after their symptoms have disappeared. We ask that anyone with flu-like symptoms not visit the school.

Preventing Spread – NMH has provided alcohol-based hand sanitizer around the school, including dispensers at the entrances of Alumni Hall. Posters and other regular announcements remind students, faculty, and staff to clean their hands frequently and follow good health guidelines such as getting enough sleep, eating well, and covering their coughs and sneezes.

Sporting Events –While NMH encourages good sportsmanship, we have asked that athletes not shake hands after their competitions, at least for now. Teams routinely are sterilizing their water bottles and have added hand sanitizer to their med kits. No athletic contests have been canceled, but we continue to check regularly with other schools for reports of illness among their student populations.

Immunization - The school is working with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) to ensure that our students will have access to the novel 2009 H1N1 vaccine as soon as it becomes available. As with the regular flu vaccine, parents must sign a permission form before their student can be immunized. Please print out the form, complete it, and fax it back to O’Connor Health Center at (413) 498-3147 as soon as possible. Students with completed permission forms on file will be vaccinated on a first-come, first-served basis when the vaccine becomes available.

Students with Symptoms- We have recommended that any student who develops flu-like symptoms promptly report to the campus health center for evaluation. Boarding students with a fever will stay at the health center until 24 hours after their fever has resolved. These students will be attended to by health center staff and will receive school assignments from their teachers by email. At this point the CDC does not recommend that we send ill boarding students home, although if the student lives nearby we encourage parents to take their child home temporarily. Day students and faculty or staff members who have symptoms will be asked to stay at home until they have been without a fever for 24 hours.

NMH carefully managed the H1N1 flu threat last spring and hope to continue doing so this fall. We know that for healthy adolescents, swine flu symptoms are comparable to seasonal flu. Still, our medical staff, led by Dr. Sandy Perkins, will continue to monitor the health of our community carefully. We are also checking regularly with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) and staying in close contact with our fellow schools.

Rest Day- On Thursday, October 22, the school had a rest day in lieu of Mountain Day. NMH is exploring the possibility of holding the annual holiday in the spring, as has been the case when previous Mountain Days were canceled.

11/2 Update- According to Medical Director Sandy Perkins, a limited number of H1N1 vaccines have been distributed. The first to be vaccinated were O'Connor Health Center staff members and students at higher risk who had parental permission. Students will be informed when the next round of H1N1 vaccines arrive.

Please submit a H1N1 vaccination permission form for your student, if you have not yet done so. You can find a link to the form at the end of this page.

It appears that we have experienced the crest of the incidence of flu on our campus. We have returned to business-as-usual and expect a normal schedule of classes and commitments this week. By the end of last week, the number of students in the infirmary had decreased to nine. Most of the students who had been recuperating at home have also returned to campus.

We followed our protocols carefully through this episode and are happy to report that we were able to provide a high level of care for our students. Should flu strike our campus again during the year, we will manage the situation by urging healthy habits, isolating sick students and, when possible, sending unhealthy students home or to a guardian to recuperate.

For more information, please visit the following websites:

Centers for Disease Control: www.CDC.gov

CDC Vaccine Information Statement

Permission form for the novel 2009 H1N1 vaccine. Please fax the completed form to the O’Connor Heather Center at (413) 498-3147.

Fall and Winter Flu Information

Fall and Winter Flu Information

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