The swine flu has spread to extreme northeast Columbia County, as the Cambria-Friesland School District on Monday became the third district in the county to have at least one student with a laboratory-confirmed case of the viral illness.
With confirmed cases also reported in schools at Lodi and Poynette, the flu, also known as H1N1, has covered a large geographical area of the county, where a total of 66 cases have been confirmed as of Monday.
But Susan Lorenz, the county's public health officer, is not recommending that the Cambria-Friesland schools close.
"The absentee rate of students is minimal, and they're monitoring students and staff for fever and cough or sore throat," she said.
The most recent H1N1 case is a student at Cambria-Friesland Elementary School, she said.
In general, school closure is not advised when a case of H1N1 is confirmed, unless such a large number of students, faculty or staff are absent that the school cannot continue its normal daily activities.
At Cambria-Friesland, Lorenz said, school officials are following a protocol that calls for identifying and excluding sick students and staff quickly.
Anyone experiencing a fever combined with either a sore throat or a cough is asked to stay home from school, or go home as soon as the symptoms are discerned — then not leave home for at least seven days from the onset of symptoms, except to keep appointments for medical attention.
Students and staff also have been instructed, Lorenz said, on the importance of washing hands with either warm water and soap or alcohol-based hand cleaner; keeping hands away from the nose, mouth and eyes and covering the mouth with the elbow sleeve (not the bare hand) when coughing.
People who have had contact with ill patients, but who do not exhibit symptoms of their own, are not excluded from school or community activities, Lorenz said.
Cambria-Friesland school officials did not return phone calls from the Daily Register Monday.
According to the school district's Web site — which also includes a notice about the confirmed case of H1N1 — the school district has about 450 students, all of whom share a single building in the village of Cambria. Students come from the villages of Cambria and Friesland, as well as six surrounding towns.
The swine flu is also making its presence known in school districts in surrounding counties.
The Sauk County Public Health Department on Monday announced three confirmed H1N1 cases in the Sauk Prairie School District. The three students who have the virus attend either Grand Avenue or Spruce Street elementary school. All have been removed from their schools, according to a press release issued by the health department, but all schools in the district remain open.
One case of H1N1 also was reported in the Adams-Friendship School District in Adams County. School closure also is not recommended there, according to Adams County Public Health Officer Linda McFarlin and Public Health Nurse Chris Saloun.
Asked if H1N1 would inevitably find its way to all Columbia County school districts, Lorenz said that was a distinct possibility.
However, she noted, "School ends next week in most districts, so I don't know whether that would happen by then."