Don’t sneeze at the advice

The independent sector is in an individual position with swine flu, because of its boarding population. Melanie Cable-Alexander assesses the likely impact of the flu pandemic on fee-paying schools.

As every parent and teacher knows there’s always a surge of coughs and colds at the start of term, but this academic year there’s swine flu to contend with. “Given we have swine flu in the community, we can expect an increase in outbreaks during the winter term,” says Dr Prit Buttar, the highly regarded Abingdon based GP. “But how it is going to evolve or how many cases there are going to be is hard to predict as so far the virus hasn’t followed any predictions.”

Swine flu has been a point of anxiety for parents since the World Health Organisation assessed it as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in April 2009. And when Eton, Alleyn’s, Stowe and Malvern College closed in May, it sent shudders through the independent school community, for in close-knit boarding school environments the virus spreads more quickly and more vociferously than at day schools.

However, concerns have diminished since the early days as the virus has appeared milder than forecast and the number of cases diagnosed has begun to decline. As recently as September 10, after the start of the term, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) reported a further reduction in the rates of flu-like illness and that the majority of cases continue to be mild with no sign that the virus is changing.