Schools starting to reopen from swine flu

Suburban schools that were closed this past week because of the H1N1 flu reopened today, after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its school closing recommendation.

The CDC said most of the confirmed cases nationwide - including 225 in Illinois - have not been as severe as originally feared, and are comparable in severity to the regular flu.

Because of that, the CDC no longer feels it's necessary to close schools where a student or faculty member is infected with H1N1 flu, also known as swine flu.

The CDC still wants school administrators and county health officials to closely monitor the situation, and asks the public to continue being vigilant about prevention measures, such as covering coughs, washing hands, and staying home if you have flu-like symptoms.

Illinois rose to the top H1N1 flu-infected state in the country today. Even states that border Mexico, where the flu originated, have roughly half as many confirmed cases as Illinois.

Illinois' totals spiked from 82 confirmed cases Tuesday because state laboratories are now able to perform confirmatory testing, health department officials said.

As of today, the state health department counts 225 confirmed cases, including 57 in suburban Cook County, 26 in DuPage County, 20 in Kane County, four in Lake County, two in McHenry County, and 15 in Will County. There are another 20 probable cases statewide, and some discrepanies with county reports.

In the past week, more than a dozen suburban schools in Des Plaines, Elgin, Rolling Meadows, Batavia, Streamwood, St. Charles and Aurora closed because someone had a confirmed or probable case of H1N1 flu.

At Brooks Elementary School in Aurora, a confirmed case was announced Tuesday, but the school will stay open on the recommendation of the DuPage County Health Department because the infected student has not attended classes since April 30.

The same thing happened at Mundelein High School, where a 15-year-old female student and her mother are two of the three confirmed H1N1 cases in Lake County.

The student had been out of class since April 26 and had been treated with anti-flu medication before briefly returning to school for part of the day last Thursday, District 120 Superintendent Jody Ware said. The girl was sent home that day after officials became aware she probably had the illness, Ware said.

While Mundelein High remained open, school leaders are closely monitoring the students and staff, and instructed anyone with flu symptoms to stay home for seven days. Posters informing students to take precautions against the disease now hang in every classroom. School officials also called students' homes with information about the illness.

So far, eight students have opted to stay home because of flu symptoms, but they haven't been tested for the H1N1 strain, Ware said. No staff members have been affected, she said.

Sandburg Junior High and Central Road schools in Rolling Meadows, which were both closed Tuesday, will reopen Wednesday, officials in Palatine Township Elementary District 15 said. The district used the day to "perform a complete building-wide disinfection" of the schools with help from an outside company.

Also on Tuesday, Elgin Area School District U-46 officials moved to reopen two schools days earlier than planned.

Ridge Circle Elementary School in Streamwood and Larkin High School in Elgin will both reopen Wednesday. Ridge Circle was originally slated to be closed until Monday, May 11, and Larkin until Friday, May 8.

U-46 Superintendent Jose Torres said the district will be following the Kane County Health Department's recommendation to keep students and staff out of the building if they have symptoms of the flu for seven days.

"We'll continue doing surveillance, monitoring attendance," district spokesman Tony Sanders said.

At Larkin, where several Advanced Placement exams were canceled, the school has been working with the College Board to reschedule the tests.

The swine flu not only closed schools, but caused a drop in blood donations and prompted cancellation of several blood drives.

Heartland Blood Center has had three drive cancellations in the past seven days, stirring fears of a blood shortage going into the Memorial Day holiday, said Heartland Vice President Ann McKanna.

McKanna said there are no concerns that donated blood could be tainted with the H1N1 flu. Through the normal screening process, cold, flu or allergy symptoms are cause for disqualification, she said.

"People who are healthy need to come out and give blood and not wait," McKanna said.

• Daily Herald staff writers Russell Lissau and Kerry Lester contributed to this report.