In Cedar Falls and across the country, schools are preparing actively for the "Swine of 09" the

e first global pandemic in 41 years. The swine flu, now renamed H1N1, first appeared last April and was met with nationwide alarm. Although the virus is not expected to come back abnormally severely this fall and winter, its impact will be magnified by the dry air and cold weather.

According to health officials, the symptoms of H1N1 are very similar to those of seasonal flu strains. The difference is that H1N1 appears to be attacking a school-aged population elementary to college age-- as opposed to the really young and old demographics usually targeted by seasonal flu. The virus is also much more easily spread and about two times more contagious than seasonal flu strains. These differences, coupled with the fact that a vaccination will not be ready until midOctober, pose a significant problem, especially for schools. The immediate issue is the possibility of serious staffing issues. Staff members being sick or having to stay home with sick children would cause the continuity of classes to suffer, Principal Dr. Rich Powers said. We know closing our school and schools in the community could cause huge disruptions to the general workforce if parents are being forced to stay home with kids.

Because schools are places of mass congregation and contact, cautionary measures in schools are central to preventing the spread of the virus and having it turn into a wider scale epidemic. At this point, the main focus is on the educational process: communicating with and educating staff, students and parents, school nurse, Susan Gettman said. An informational powerpoint created by the school nurses was shown last week to students and staff. It included information regarding the virus and ways to stay healthy. Its a lot of the same things you learned in kindergarten wash your hands, cough into your mouth, use a tissue when you sneeze and throw it away basic hygiene, Gettman said. On a city-wide scale, similar educational efforts are being made. The most important thing right now is cleanliness washing your hands, covering when you sneeze, cleaning down things that are most commonly touched we have to work on changing our behavior and how we deal with hygiene, said Dr. Michele Devlin, Professor of Public Health at UNI and member of the Black Hawk County Board of Health.

Although these measures may seem low key, the reason those in public health emphasize personal hygiene is that the biggest way germs are spread is through our hands. As pointed out by Gettman, many complications present themselves with focusing on cleaning other things, but even still the janitorial staff is making a special effort to keep surfaces clean. New hand-sanitizing stations have also been installed in the lunch rooms. Honestly, you have to ask yourself Where does it stop? Everything you touch has germs. Working to keep your hands germ free is a much better investment, Gettman said. However, should the situation escalate other measures are being explored to address a possible worst-case scenario. There is a lot of discussion regarding the what ifs?, Powers said. Plans such as using Cedar Falls High School as a distributing center for a vaccination for students are being considered, although they present several legal and logistical complications. Nationwide, other solutions are being planned in order to keep schools up and running even through an epidemic. A simpler strategy such as increasing the contact distance between students by moving desks farther away from each other, having teachers travel to different classes as opposed to students, postponing or canceling events at which students are in mass contact (e.g., sporting events and class trips) is a possible measure. Plans are also being drafted for ways to continue providing education for sick students or for the entire student body, in the event that schools shut down. Putting lesson plans online, creating take-home homework packets and even broadcasting lessons on public television are all some of the solutions that have been proposed. Officials say although the threat is there, it is important to recognize that this is still just a flu strain: We need to take all these precautions, but we dont need to be hysterical, Dr. Devlin said. Fundamentally, this is still a flu, just a new strain.