Officials in Vernon closed an elementary school yesterday after a student contracted swine flu, but provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall said it was just a precaution.
The number of diagnosed cases in sa国际传媒 has reached 11 -- the one in Vernon, eight in the Lower Mainland, one in Victoria and one in Prince George.
"The [Vernon] district has made the decision to close that school for one week, out of an abundance of caution and precaution," Kendall said yesterday at a news conference in Victoria. He said the child involved had been on a trip to Mexico, came down with a mild case of influenza and is recovering at home.
A Seattle school has also closed for a week after a student came down with what is believed to be swine flu.
Kendall said one of his main goals in addressing the media was to encourage parents and schools to continue taking steps to control the spread of the swine flu "but not to be too alarmed about what we're seeing in the spread of this illness.
"Cases in British Columbia are pretty similar to a seasonal influenza of moderate severity, so we're not seeing anything outrageous or really bad."
He said normal precautions for controlling the spread of the flu include frequent handwashing, covering your mouth with a tissue or your elbow when you cough and staying home if you start experiencing flu-like symptoms.
Kendall was joined by Greater Victoria school district superintendent John Gaiptman, who said his district has taken steps in response to the outbreak.
"We have our daytime custodians really concentrating on things like doorknobs, on faucets and taps, making sure that germs aren't being spread," Gaiptman said.
"We've put on a couple of extra custodians to help out in our larger schools and busier areas."
Kendall said that getting the facts to people is an essential part of dealing with the swine flu. He said he has heard of children being "shunned" by their peers if they have recently been to Mexico, where the start of the swine flu has been traced. "I think that's woefully unnecessary."
Gaiptman said the school district, the capital region's largest with 43 schools and close to 20,000 students, hasn't decided whether it might close schools.
"The answer is we don't make that decision in an isolated way. We're part of a team -- we'd be in touch with the chief medical officer. We'd be in touch with the [health] ministry. We would then make what we thought was the best decision at the time."
