Latest news with #schooloutbreak
The Sun
23-05-2025
- Health
- The Sun
Three children rushed to hospital after outbreak of ‘vile' bug at UK school – as health officials issue vital warning
THREE children have been rushed to hospital after an outbreak of a highly contagious bug swept through a school. Seven children in a class of 22 at the Compton All Saints Church of England Primary School, near Winchester in Hampshire, fell ill with norovirus, which causes vomiting and diarrhoea. 3 3 The sick kids stayed off school on Thursday May 22, and three of them had to be treated in hospital, according to Hampshire County Council. As a result of the outbreak, the school has been partially closed today to contain the infectious bug and conduct a deep clean of the premises. Sun Health has contacted the school for comment and further updates. According to the Hampshire Count y Council, the school - which is attended by 120 pupils aged four to eleven - sought public health advice. It was advised isolate the class from other Year One students and the the rest of the school. But as this was "logistically impossible", the only option was to close the class on Friday. Parents with children enrolled in the school were notified of the situation and provided with information public health advice on norovirus. The NHS advises that anyone with norovirus symptoms avoid going to school or work until they've had no symptoms of the bug for two whole days. Norovirus is often referred to as the ' winter vomiting bug' but the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) recently warned that cases of the nasty illness have remained high into springtime. "Think you have norovirus in May? It's possible as levels are high for this time of year. You can catch the virus all year round," the health watchdog posted on X, formerly Twitter. Love Island's Ollie Williams reveals he and other contestants 'had the s**ts' in the villa and thinks there was a bug going around In it's last update on the bug, it said 1,924 cases of norovirus were reported in the four weeks leading up to April 27. This is more than double the amount usually seen at this time of year. But though case numbers remain high, they have started to decrease slightly compared to previous weeks. Overall, norovirus reports in April were 20 per cent lower than the previous four-week period, where 2,404 cases were detected, according to UKHSA. 3 "Reporting decreased across all age groups, but the highest number of reports remains in adults aged 65 years and over," it added. The health watchdog said it was looking into what was driving the higher-than-normal amount of norovirus cases, noting that changes to the epidemiology of the virus following the Covid-19 pandemic or changes in testing and reporting could be partly to blame. Norovirus is spreads very easily so outbreaks are common in settings where people are often in close contact, such as schools, nurseries, hospitals and care homes. For people will be suddenly struck by unpleasant symptoms - such as projectile vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach pains and a high temperature - for two or three days. The main symptoms or norovirus, according to the NHS, are: Feeling sick (nausea) Diarrhoea Being sick (vomiting) You may also have: A high temperature A headache Aching arms and legs You can usually treat norovirus at home - the most important thing to do is rest and have lots of fluids to avoid dehydration. As norovirus is easily spread it's important to do what you can to prevent catching it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends four things you can do to protect yourself. Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially: After using the toilet or changing nappies Before eating, preparing, or handling food Before giving yourself or someone else medicine It's important to be aware hand sanitisers don't always work well against norovirus. You can use them in addition to hand washing, but it shouldn't be a substitution. Before preparing and eating your food the CDC recommends the following: Carefully wash fruits and vegetables well Cook oysters and other shellfish thoroughly to an internal temperature of at least 63°C Routinely clean and sanitise kitchen utensils, cutting boards, counters, and surfaces, especially after handling shellfish Keep raw oysters away from ready-to-eat food in your shopping basket, refrigerator, and on cutting boards Throw away food that might contain norovirus Noroviruses are relatively resistant to heat and can survive temperatures as high as 63°C. Quick steaming processes will not heat foods enough to kill noroviruses. And be aware food contaminated with norovirus may look, smell, or taste normal. After someone with norovirus vomits and has diarrhoea you should: Wear rubber or disposable gloves and wipe the entire area with paper towels and throw them in a plastic trash bag Disinfect the area as directed on the product label Leave bleach disinfectant on the affected area for at least five minutes Clean the entire area again with soap and hot water Wash laundry, take out the trash, and wash your hands An expert recently warned norovirus can spread via clothes. Immediately remove and wash clothes or linens that may have vomit or poo on them. When you do this: Wear rubber or disposable gloves Handle items carefully without shaking them Wash the items with detergent and hot water at the maximum available cycle length and then machine dry them at the highest heat setting Wash your hands after with soap and water Though nasty, it tends to be short-live illness that people can recover from at home with rest and lots of fluids, to avoid dehydration. But some vulnerable people - including young children, the elderly or those with weakened immunity - are at risk of suffering more serious and prolonged illness, which may require treatment in hospital. Watch out for signs of dehydration and call 111 if your little one can't keep fluids down, has bloody diarrhoea or has been vomiting for more than two days and having diarrhoea for more than seven. Norovirus is very infectious as the virus spreads through poo particles. You can catch it from coming into close contact with someone with the virus, touching contaminated surfaces or objects and then bringing your hand to your mouth, or eating food handled by someone with norovirus. That;s why good hand hygiene is important to stop norovirus spreading. To avoid catching the bug or passing it on to others, you should wash your hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and warm water. This is most important following an episode of illness, after using the toilet, before eating or preparing food, as well as cleaning up vomit or diarrhoea. Alcohol-based hand sanitisers won't kill the virus, so give your hands a good scrub with warm water and soap.
Daily Mail
21-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Outbreak fears as world's deadliest disease hits New York high school sparking panic among parents
Panic has erupted at a New York high school after more than a hundred students and staff were tested for the world's deadliest disease. A student infected with tuberculosis attended Sachem East High School in Suffolk County, Long Island, earlier this month. More than 116 students and seven teachers are now being asked to get tested for the disease to ensure that they are not also infected, with results expected later today. Principal Lou Antonetti alerted parents to the potential outbreak in a letter urging them to get their children tested. One mother at the school raised concerns to local media, saying that she felt more needed to be done to protect students and staff from the disease. The World Health Organization considers tuberculosis to be the most deadly disease in the world because it kills the most people, claiming about 1.25million lives every year — mostly in developing countries. The infection was considered to be a death sentence in the 18th and 19th centuries when there was no cure, although it can now be treated with antibiotics — and also vaccinated against. Most tuberculosis cases in the US are imported or due to migration into the country, the CDC says, with the vast majority of cases reported nationally diagnosed in people who were not born in the country. Tuberculosis is highly infectious, spread via droplets released in coughs and sneezes that hang in the air for hours after an infectious patient passes. In some cases, the disease can lie dormant in the body for years, but in others it triggers a quick infection that attacks the lungs. Symptoms begin as a cough that lasts for three weeks or more and coughing up blood before progressing in untreated cases to respiratory failure, or being unable to breathe, and death. Writing to parents of children who may have been exposed to the disease on May 16, Principal Antonetti wrote: 'We are contacting you because we have reason to believe that you had contact with this individual during the time (s)he was infectious.' Tests were carried out free-of-charge at the school on Monday, May 19, with doctors using a skin test — where a clear fluid is injected under the skin and doctors wait for hard, raised bumps to appear, which shows someone has the disease. More tests will be carried out two months later in July, covering the two-month incubation period the disease has before an infected person shows symptoms. Health officials are carrying out contact tracing to establish who had spent long periods near the infected student, which would put them at higher risk of infection. Janie Gallo, a Farmingville resident and parent at the school, blasted the authorities, telling local station news12: 'What's being done to ensure the safety of the kids when we, as parents or guardians, send them to school?!' Another resident, Anton Kovary, said: 'I've had TB before, so you can fight it. You can overcome any kind of disease that you have.' A third, called Lisa Russo, added: 'It's only one student anyway that had it, and everybody is being tested, so I'm not worried about it.' Suffolk county, which covers most of Long Island and is where the school is based, is wealthy — with the average resident earning $128,000 per year on average. Data for Sachem East High School for 2022 and 2023 shows, however, that about 32 percent of children attending the school — or 663 individuals — are considered to be economically disadvantaged. About six percent of attendees, or 119 students, are also considered to be English language learners — meaning they speak a language other than English at home and require support to learn the language. In an active tuberculosis case, symptoms begin as a bad cough that lasts for three weeks, pain in the chest and coughing up blood. In serious cases, the disease causes extensive damage to the lungs — leading to trouble breathing and, eventually, death. Tuberculosis can now be effectively treated with antibiotics, and there is also a vaccine available — called the BCG vaccine. This is not routinely offered in the US, because the disease is not common, the vaccine is less effective in adults and it can lead to false-positive test results. But parents do have the option to vaccinate their children. In developing countries, it is given to young children, but may also be administered to children under the age of 16 years. It is famous for typically leaving a small and circular scar on the arm, which is a normal response to the vaccine and a sign that it was effective. There were 10,347 tuberculosis cases detected in the US in 2024, of which about one in ten — or 1,089 infections — were recorded in New York state. Despite its high prices, New York City continues to be the most-visited large city in the US welcoming 64.3million travelers in 2024 alone. Experts say this international travel raises the risk of people bringing diseases, such as tuberculosis, from other countries into the US. At least two people died from tuberculosis in the US last year amid an outbreak in Kansas City, which became the largest in the country since the 1950s.
