BUFFALO SCHOOLS
Swine flu efforts get summer boost
As many as 15,000 Buffalo students are slated to begin summer school next week, so the school district is stepping up efforts to combat swine flu.
Superintendent James A. Williams announced these new measures at a news conference Thursday morning at Waterfront Elementary School:
•A medical director will be provided by Kaleida Health to assist school officials with health-related policy issues, such as whether to close a school. The director, who will be a physician, is expected to be in place by September, and to be available to the district about 10 hours a week, said James R. Kaskie, Kaleida’s president and chief executive officer.
• More than 1,500 personal hand sanitizers — slightly larger than a pen — are being provided to summer school teachers and staff by BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York. An additional 5,000 will be distributed in September.
• Nurses will be on duty at all city schools where summer classes are being held. Not all schools had nursing services in previous summers.
• Consideration is being given to offering flu shots to city students. They were available to teachers and other staff members last year.
Two Buffalo students died of swine flu last month, and nearly 40 other cases have been reported in the schools, said Assunta Ventresca, the school district’s director of health related services.
Basic sanitary precautions remain the best safeguard, said Jay I. Pomerantz, chief medical officer of BlueCross BlueShield.
“We’re all vulnerable, and we must protect each other and ourselves, but we must also balance that need with thoughtful, proven ways of doing it,” he said. “The goal in avoiding catastrophic events is preventing the spread of the illness.”
Williams again urged parents to keep their children home when they are sick, and said swine flu control is a top priority.
“We’re prepared,” he said. “We think everything will go well, but you can’t predict what’s going to happen.”
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