甲流再次袭来 芝加哥学校被迫停课

音频下载[点击右键另存为]
位于芝加哥郊区的圣查尔斯伊斯特高中(St. Charles East High School)因出现学生大规模感染流感，已决定从21日起停课3天。目前尚未确定该校学生感染的流感病毒是否为A流感(H1N1，俗称猪流感)。

截至20日，该校共有972名学生因出现疑似流感症状而请病假。管辖该校的303学区总监唐施罗曼博士(Don Schlomann)表示，由于该校出现前所未有的流感大规模传染事件，该校园被迫从周三起停课，下周一能否复课仍需看形势而定。

Across the country today, more than 300 schools in 19 states were closed because of H1N1 outbreaks.

NPR's David Schaper reports from one high school in the Chicago suburb of St. Charles.

DAVID SCHAPER: You'd expect a high school to be quite a lively place in a Friday afternoon, especially with a big cross-town rivalry football game that have been scheduled for tonight. But all is quiet here at St. Charles East where the school has been closed since Wednesday. Superintendent Don Schlomann says problems began Monday morning when more than 600 students stayed home sick. Throughout the day, he says, scores more were sent home.

Mr. DON SCHLOMANN (Superintendent, St. Charles East): And by the end of Tuesday, we were at 972 absences at the school, so nearly closing in on a thousand. So, in math terms, the slope was not a positive one for us.

SCHAPER: That's 45 percent of 2,200 students at St. Charles East out sick. So, with projects coming due and big exams scheduled, in contrary to the advice from the county health department, Schlomann decided to shut down East for the remainder of the week.

Mr. SCHLOMANN: As I told somebody, they don't teach you those decisions at superintendent school.

SCHAPER: St. Charles East is the only school in the area that had to close. Schlomann thinks it might be related to homecoming activities last week.

Mr. SCHLOMANN: They were together every day pretty much in some sort of pep assembly, or they had a volleyball games or whatever. Add onto that, a student dance with 1,400 students in a gymnasium, and you have a lot of capacity to transmit germs very easily.

SCHAPER: Schlomann says only about a third of students still reported feeling sick yesterday. And he suspects that the number had dropped again today. So, classes will resume Monday. Extracurricular activities would resume this weekend, including that football game against rival, St. Charles North. And swine flu vaccines have arrived and will be available here Monday.

David Schaper, NPR News in St. Charles, Illinois.