DULUTH - The Northland may have hit its swine flu peak last week, as area school districts on Monday reported significantly fewer absences of students and teachers.
The Duluth school district had more than 500 students absent with flu-like symptoms early last week. By 3 p.m. Monday, that number had fallen to 183.
"We are liking our numbers right now," said Curt Conrad, coordinator of health and safety for the district. "They are definitely going down."
The Proctor school district -- which has been hit hard by the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu -- saw the number of absent students decrease by half Monday from Friday. Esko schools had only 30 students out with probable flu Monday. Lakeview Christian Academy went from 13 percent out last week to less than 5 percent Monday.
"We were hoping this past week or two was the peak," said Dr. Linda Van Etta, an epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist for St. Luke's hospital. "An average wave of an influenza pandemic only stays in the region for 6-12 weeks, and we knew last week we were in the seventh week or so."
ADVERTISEMENT
She said flu numbers from St. Luke's urgent care and its emergency department still were elevated, but lower than in the past two weeks.
"We are somewhat encouraged that we may have weathered the worst of the storm here," Van Etta said.
Parts of Wisconsin aren't faring so well. The flu caused the Hurley school district to shut down school Monday and today. About 30 percent of the 635 students in the K-12 school were absent Wednesday through Friday last week, said Chris Patritto, the superintendent.
"The staff was getting hit pretty hard," he said. "The deciding factor was, were we going to have enough staff to go today?"
The decision was made Saturday with Iron County health officials, and the district's phone system sent the message out Sunday morning. The school had dealt with a relatively low absence rate because of flu-like illness until last week.
"It just kind of hit," Patritto said, noting that at least 30 schools in Wisconsin have shut down for a few days to allow staff and students to get well.
The school -- which will be sanitized extensively during the closure -- will reopen Wednesday.
Another wave of the H1N1 virus could hit the Northland area, Van Etta said. The Spanish Flu of 1918 had three waves, with the second being the largest. Other pandemics have had only two waves. The virus seems to be sensitive to Tamiflu, she said, and not mutating.
ADVERTISEMENT
"It doesn't seem to be worsening in its virulence; most people are doing fairly well with it," she said.
