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 The Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall passes through downtown Wapakoneta Wednesday, September 1. Staff photo/William Laney By CARLA MEYER
Staff Writer
For 45 minutes, the roar of motorcycles could be heard passing under an American flag hanging from two ladder trucks. For 45 minutes, area residents gathered in the shadow of the Auglaize County Courthouse and Wapakoneta Fire Station waved and clapped as motorcyclists rode by.
The smiles and waves turned into clapping and cheers as the Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall passed down Willipie Street on its way to Custenborder Field in Sidney where it was greeted by a field of American flags.
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Friday, 06 November 2009 |
By KAREN CAMPBELL
Assistant Managing Editor
Classes in the Wapakoneta City Schools District are to continue as usual, the superintendent said this morning, despite a confirmed case of H1N1.
Parents in the district received a telephone alert Thursday about the student and were advised that the district would be following proper protocol in addressing it.
Superintendent Keith Horner said proper protocol, as advised by the Auglaize County Health Department, includes washing hands frequently and students and staff not coming to school if they have a fever or feel ill.
The infected child, a student at the Wapakoneta Middle School, was not hospitalized as is now required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to confirm a case, but was tested as part of a random sample done by his local physician, Horner told the Wapakoneta Daily News this morning.
Auglaize County Health Commissioner Charlotte Parsons said this morning that because of a three- to four-week delay in getting results confirmed, this student is no longer infected and back at school.
“H1N1 is pretty much everywhere in the state of Ohio,” Parsons said. “We are assuming that any case of influenza, particularly in those 25 and younger, is H1N1.
“People need to take preventative measures and practice good hygiene until it is gone, which will be a while,” she said. “The most important thing is people who are sick need to stay home.”
She said with vaccine supplies just this week becoming large enough to hold the county’s first clinic, she encouraged everyone to get the H1N1 vaccine when it is available to them as the first line of defense.
Parsons said as more becomes available, possibly as early as next week, they plan to hold additional clinics.
The first is scheduled from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday at New Bremen High School for those in the top priority groups.
“The number of new cases is down from the past two weeks,” Parsons said. “People should still be cautious though. It is still in the county.”
Horner said they plan to continue to monitor attendance rates and perform extra cleaning, particularly to desks and other surface areas.
He said they plan on continuing many of the same practices started last year when there were concerns about the spread of MRSA in the schools, including placing hand sanitizer in every classroom and throughout the buildings and encouraging everyone to use it.
“We don’t plan to put a number or percentage on when we might close school,” Horner said. “Some districts have done that, but our attendance is hanging in there. We have good and bad days.”
He said at its worse, district attendance for a school day has been as low as 94 percent which occurred a couple of weeks ago, but that number jumped back up the next day.
“The information we are getting from the Health Department is to treat it as a typical flu season, with extra emphasis on hand washing and not coming to school with a fever,” Horner said. “We are doing that, but it does seem more people are getting it.”
In a letter that went home to parents Oct. 1, Horner advised that the flu can spread easily from person to person and the district is taking steps to reduce its spread in Wapakoneta City Schools.
“We want to keep the school open to students and functioning in a normal manner,” Horner said, asking for parents’ assistance in doing so.
Working closely with the Ohio Department of Education and the Auglaize County Health Department to monitor flu conditions and make decisions about the best steps to take, Horner said they would be keeping parents updated with new information as it becomes available.
He recommended parents assist in keeping children healthy by teaching them to wash their hands often with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub and not to share personal items such as drinks or food and to cover their coughs and sneezes using an elbow or tissue instead of a hand.
Symptoms of the flu include a fever of 100 degrees or higher, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache and extreme tiredness. Some people also may vomit or have diarrhea.
Horner said children who are sick with these symptoms should be kept home for at least 24 hours after they no longer have fever or signs of fever without using fever-reducing drugs.
“By keeping children with a fever at home, they will reduce the number of people who may get infected,” Horner said.
He said any children determined to be sick while at school will be sent home.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 09 November 2009 )
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