School reopening hinges on test results

• By MARSHA SILLS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: May 2, 2009 - Page: 4A

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LAFAYETTE — More confirmations of Type A influenza didn’t close schools Friday, but officials at closed parochial schools are taking a wait-and-see approach before deciding if students will return Monday.

So far, at least 14 confirmed cases of Type A influenza, the same type that causes the highly contagious H1N1 virus or swine flu, have been reported among schoolchildren in the Lafayette area.

There is no vaccine for H1N1 at this time.

On Friday, Catholic High School in New Iberia and Comeaux High School, a public school in Lafayette, each reported one student testing positive for Type A influenza.

Neither school closed.

Tests are pending on five cases reported Wednesday at Cathedral-Carmel School. The school closed Wednesday at the state’s recommendation.

The results will determine when the school reopens.

If any of the tests are positive for swine flu, the school will be shut down for at least two weeks, said Lauren Mendes, spokesperson for the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

A two-week closure is the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop the spread of the virus.

“The CDC just upgraded those recommendations,” Mendes said. “It’s now 14 days. It was seven days.”

Public schools will be open Monday. A determination about parochial school openings will be made this weekend, said Anna Larriviere, diocesan school superintendent.

Parochial schools which have had students test positive for Type A influenza opted to close Friday. They were St. Pius and St. Cecilia — with two confirmed cases each — and Our Lady of Fatima and the Schools of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau — each with one case.

Two cases have been confirmed in public schools — one at Katharine Drexel Elementary in Broussard and one at Comeaux High.