'Pretty much a non-event' at schools so far

By Matthew E. Milliken

mmilliken@heraldsun.com; 419-6684

DURHAM -- Durham school officials say that this year's attendance is lagging last year's by about 1 percent but are not able to pin the blame on influenza.

District data show the combined system attendance rate for months one and two of the 2009-10 school year as 94.3 percent. The comparable figure for 2008-09 was 95.4 percent.

The local school system does not track influenza-related illness, spokesman Michael Yarbrough said.

Flu, H1N1 or otherwise, has not yet had a perceptible impact on attendance anywhere in the state, said officials with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The department is monitoring attendance patterns but has yet to see the sharp, sustained drop that would indicate a significant outbreak of any illness.

"Right now it's pretty much a non-event," said Ben Matthews, director of school support. "Yes, there's some flu out there. Some of it's H1N1, some of it's seasonal."

Matthews is part of a team that meets in person, by telephone or by Web each week to track the flu situation. Other state agencies that participate in the meetings are the Division of Public Health, the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety and the governor's staff. Among other things, the collaboration helps Matthews make sure that schools get any new information about the illness that state or federal agencies distribute.

That team approach is mirrored on a local level, where representatives of the Durham public school system and the county Department of Public Health communicate regularly. Ron Allen, the district's risk management services director, said that school by school attendance reports are sent to the county agency weekly.

The school system has distributed information on preventing the spread of flu and on dealing with having the illness, but it has left specific measures on improving basic hygiene and so forth up to school principals. Information distributed by the system has been vetted by the Public Health Department.

North Carolina had 57 influenza related deaths in the period beginning April 1 and ending Saturday, of which one occurred in Durham County. A new chart compiled by state public health officials this week showed the number of flu deaths jumping sharply in October. That may be partly due to a change in methodology; until the end of September, only confirmed H1N1 flu deaths were being tracked. Since then officials no longer distinguish between flu strains.

Another new chart showing flu deaths by age, also for April through Saturday, indicated that 45 of the victims were between the ages of 25 and 64. Six victims were older than 65, one was in the 19-to-24 age group, and five were between the ages of 5 and 18.

The sole Durham flu fatality was a man in his 40s who had complicating medical conditions, according to Gayle Harris, Durham County's director of public health.

Physician Arlene Se