SHOOT: 'Normal flu' and 'bronchitis' hit schools, but it's not swine flu?
Local media reported that about half the pupils at Paarl's Gymnasium High School were absent on Wednesday, and just over 40 percent at the Paarl Girls' High School.
"It's definitely not a swine flu panic," said Sue Redelinghuys.
She said the illnesses that had hit the school were a mixture of normal flu and other winter ailments such as bronchitis.
Though a number of day pupils were ill, there had been a particularly high incidence in the school's boarding house, which was where the illnesses were "emanating from".
Close to 100 of the school's 800 pupils were absent on Wednesday, she said.
In consultation with the school's doctors, it was decided that a two-day break - effectively five days with the weekend and next week's public holiday - would be "a good measure".
The shutdown would isolate the full-term boarders and put a brake on transmission to weekly boarders and day pupils.
Redelinghuys said there had been only one confirmed case of swine flu at the school, that of a day pupil |
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