Press Release from Prince William County Schools concerning a confirmed case of the swine flu.

Also, interesting is the World Health Organization (WHO) Update which tabluates the number of people infected and the deaths per country.

Case of H1N1 Virus (Swine Flu) Confirmed
Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Early Tuesday evening PWCS received notification of a confirmed case of the H1N1 Virus, otherwise known as “Swine Flu” involving a West Gate Elementary School student. The student is recovering at home and will not return to school until cleared by a doctor.

Our School Division has been in frequent contact with local and state health officials regarding this particular case, in accordance with established PWCS guidelines. We are closely monitoring the situation and are utilizing the guidance of the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). All appropriate measures are being taken to ensure the health of all of our students and staff.

While the spread of the virus from person-to-person continues throughout the United States, the severity of the virus does not appear to be any more severe than seasonal flu. The new guidance from the CDC does not recommend closing a school unless there is significant faculty or student absenteeism which would interfere with the school’s ability to function. School Division officials will work closely with local and state health officials to monitor the situation and determine if our response needs to change. This could include the future possibility that a school may need to close.

Parents are asked to continue to monitor their children for any of the symptoms of influenza, which include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue, and occasionally vomiting and diarrhea. If your child is experiencing any symptoms which you are concerned about, please contact your child’s healthcare provider.

This is a good opportunity to remind everyone regarding simple steps that you can take to keep your family healthy. These include:

  • Wash your hands frequently with soap and warm water. Clean hands with an alcohol-based hand cleaner if soap and water are not available
  • Cover your nose and mouth with your sleeve or a tissue when you cough or sneeze
  • Stay home when you are sick
  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth to prevent the spread of germs
  • Avoid close contact with those who have symptoms of flu
  • If you need to seek care for you or your child, please call ahead to your health care provider’s office and tell them what symptoms you have, so they can see you quickly and prevent exposing other people in the waiting room.
  • Parents are encouraged to report the reason for their child’s absence to the school. It is very important, during a health situation such as this, to have accurate information about absences.

    The health and safety of our students and staff is always of the utmost importance. Please refer to the PWCS web site at pwcs.edu or the VDH web site at www.vdh.virginia.gov for more information and for helpful resources regarding the H1N1 Virus.

    Questions and answers about swine flu from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

    World Health Organization (WHO) Update

27 Thoughts to “First Confirmed Case of Swine Flu in Prince William County Schools”

  1. Juturna

    Am horrified at the leap taken by BVBL/Stewart on this issue.

  2. Witness Too

    Oh God. What have Letiecq and Stewart done now? No, they wouldn’t? Would they? Maybe Letiecq, but not Stewart, surely.

  3. Moon-howler

    The leap taken seems to be rather biased and definitely an assumption.

    And yet people on that blog would be the very first to be outraged at the suggestion that they were biased.

    If I held public office, I would not want to be associated in any way with that kind of talk.

  4. Witness Too

    M-H, what are you talking about? I haven’t looked at the hate blog for many months and would like to keep the streak going. I would have expected the hate blog to aim for Swine Flu hysteria when there was no facts or information about it. Now that there are fact and information, how does Gospel Greg think he will get any traction? I can’t believe he would try, but I am not surprised enough to go and look.

  5. Gainesville Resident

    All I see is that Greg posted that. Why is Stewart being dragged into this? Why don’t we stick to the facts for a change.

  6. Moon-howler

    You have to read for yourself. I am not even going to try to reconstruct it.

    I don’t like the neighborhood slur to start with.

    Gainesville, I wasn’t aware that Corey was dragged into it. I am sure he would want as far away from that article as possible!! They all would.

  7. Gainesville Resident

    One of your posters above dragged Corey into it. I don’t see any evidence he has anything to do with what is said on bvbl. That seems to be just Greg.

  8. BVBL Reports

    Greg L said on 10 Jun 2009 at 4:03 pm: Flag comment

    Just about every case identified so far had to do with someone having been in Mexico. Those few cases not directly connected with having recently been in Mexico have all had to do with close personal contact with someone who had recently been in Mexico.

    Simple probabilities make my strong suspicion statistically valid. Sure, there’s a chance there’s no direct or closely indirect association with folks who somehow evaded inspection at a border crossing station where such an infection would have likely been detected, but when those probabilities fall into the single digits, I’m pretty comfortable with suspecting a connection with illegal aliens here.

    We’re talking about Westgate here, also. Not quite unknown to the illegal alien community, by any stretch of the imagination.

  9. Juturna

    I did it blame me. I thought Greg was his mouthpiece. Or is that judt sometmes? How do we tell the difference? Guess I was just leaping to conclusions without facts. Not a good thing, eh!!

  10. Gainesville Resident

    I am sure Corey can speak for himself, he is a politician after all and most if not all politicians can definitely speak for themselves when the opportunity presents itself. I think Greg is only a mouthpiece for himself, despite some people’s efforts to proclaim otherwise.

  11. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Juturna :
    I did it blame me. I thought Greg was his mouthpiece. Or is that judt sometmes? How do we tell the difference? Guess I was just leaping to conclusions without facts. Not a good thing, eh!!

    Not Good….but REALLY Typical!!

  12. Juturna

    It was moment of madness on my part. Forgot which blog I was on.

  13. Moon-howler

    Let’s cut Juturna a break, guys. I would say that there have been times in the past where one has been the spokesperson for the other. I am sure no one wants me to pull out old videos…..

    I think the point she was making as she apologized is that it is easy to confuse. I do not believe Corey has anything to do with the story about swine flu…or let me rephrase…there is no indication that he has anything to do with the bvbl version of swine flu in the ghetto of Westgate.

    If that were my neighborhood I wouldn’t like the aspersions being cast.

  14. Juturna

    Thanks, MH. It was a quantam leap. I will say, I was reeling from what I read there and did lash out. 🙁

    Reacting is not my usual style, lashing out….. I’m just really sick of it and should, as others have mentioned, just stay away from the site.

  15. Moon-howler

    Juturna, there is an old expression: if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it is probably a duck.

    You are as welcome to lash out as the next guy.

  16. Gainesville Resident

    My only point was the first post was posted in a way to sound like a fact that Corey had said that. I just don’t particularly like seeing news distorted in that fashion. But I’ll drop it for now – I just have seen a lot of attempts by various posters on here in recent times trying to link Corey to Greg. I haven’t really seen any evidence of that in a long while. Anyway, I’ll drop it – and I agree what was posted on bvbl is not good. I’m not disputing that.

  17. Big dane

    To greg maybe its one of your kind and color that decided to go there

  18. Elena

    More disgusting behavior by Greg. THIS is scapegoating one sect of people.

  19. DiversityGal

    It makes me cry that the people who posted that stuff may view those beliefs as perfectly acceptable and unprejudiced. We should dismiss a school full of children, a neighborhood, a county school system for that matter, as malignant or deficient because of a vague report about one child having the flu? I feel truly sorry for Greg for harboring enough hate in his heart to make those generalizations time and time again. How much he misses in people, and will probably continue to miss. I truly think he believes the garbage he just spilled, and some posters were more than happy to jump on board.

    Again, I am very sad this morning to read that nastiness. Good thing I get to erase those images every day by seeing countless children and families that don’t fit into the little box Mr. L has drawn for them.

  20. silver fox

    Does that man realize that the “ghetto of Westgate” borders the Sudley which by the way has it spots that look pretty crappy. One can take a spin down around the streets that surround Sudley Elem.(Roxbury, Copeland, and the worst Dublin) and can see it’s not much better than Westgate. If Mr. L. thinks it’s so horrible in the county in which he resides then why the hell doesn’t he pack his shit up and get the hell out of Dodge?

  21. Punchak

    According to this morning’s WashPost, the student is recovering.
    This swine flu hype is just too much. Why is it so easy to get the American people hopped up?

    OK, I know people die from it but, really, how many deaths have there been in the US?

    Greg’s attitude is despicable!!!!

  22. Moon-howler

    Perhaps it is easier to throw stones at neighborhoods closer to you than the ones further away? People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw boulders.

  23. El Guapo

    Question: Does anyone know of an actual case of an illegal alien crossing the border carrying swine flu? I haven’t been following the issue very closely, but the only cases I heard about were American tourists coming back from Mexico or legal immigrants.

  24. Gainesville Resident

    A lot of the swine flu stuff in the news is just that – hype. In some ways the regular flu is more lethal – and it kills a lot of people every year.

    Unfortunately, the WHO is using the term “pandemic” in relation to the swine flu, which is bad. That has to do more with its geographic spread than how lethal it is. There are definitely more lethal strains of the regular flu out there, let’s put it that way.

    The entire swine flu thing has been completely blown out of propoortion by the press – and they are really creating a lot of panic. Typical of the press – they need their headlines to get people to buy their newspapers and such, or look at their websites which they get advertising revenue off of based on the number of visits. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen so much hype over something, and so much distorted information. Many more people die from the regular flu here in the USA every year – compared to the handful that have died so far from the swine flu. If I remember right – it’s something like 20,000 people in the USA that die from the regular flu each year! Contrast that to the handful who’ve died from the swine flu – but reading the newspapers or watching the news on TV, you’d never know that! It’s all hype.

  25. Concerned parent

    I am very upset about how the VDH is handling the spread of H1N1. I have been quarantined in my homw with my daughter who was tested Monday June 8th for the flu. She tested positive for the flu, then my pediatrician’s office sent the test to the VDH to confirm it was H1N1(swine) flu. They refused to test it and confirm it. VDH stated they don’t need to , because they know it will be positive for H1N1. They have not called the school or told any teachers or parents that my daughter has been around. I think this neglect on the VDH.

  26. Punchak

    You have every reason to be a Concerned parent!

    Not needing to test because they KNOW! That’s scientific????????

    I hope with all my heart that your daughter will soon be well.

  27. Gainesville Resident

    El Guapo – there was a confirmed case in a Texas border town – of someone legally crossing over from the Mexican border and then becoming ill. It is in an area where people have family on both sides of the border and are legally able to come and go across the border to visit relatives. That is the only case I know of, but it involved a legal visitor to the USA from Mexico. It happened while I was down in Texas a month ago roughly – and was big news at the time down there – in the early days of teh swine flu panic. I was in Central Texas, but this was of course a lead item in the local newspapers and the local news. It was at the same time that CNN, FOX, and other news organizations were all blasting up big headlines “swine flu epidemic – record number of deaths predicted”, etc. etc. in the first days of the swine flu reporting. All of it hype – I don’t see any record numbers of deaths so far, but that’s what CNN, FOX, and others would have had you believe in the first days it surfaced here.

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