Plague of winter illnesses hammers children

Hundreds of school children were kept home sick yesterday as Auckland felt the brunt of a crop of viruses.

Some schools have had close to a fifth of their pupils off sick.

At Auckland Grammar, 500 of the school's 2600 students were home sick yesterday.

Headmaster John Morris said: "It's unheard of. I'm not sure we can do anything to stem it."

Hospitals have been swamped with sick children in what may be the first surge of a flu outbreak yet to strike adults.

"Starship has been hit very heavily in the last week," said Dr Richard Aickin, clinical director of the emergency department at the Auckland children's hospital.

Public health authorities, concerned by the school outbreaks, are testing some children to pin down which bugs are responsible. They also urge vaccination against the flu.

"Some of the children are experiencing diarrhoea," an Auckland medical officer of health, Dr Greg Simmons, said yesterday, "but it doesn't look like a classic norovirus issue. It's likely to be a respiratory virus."

Early laboratory results suggested it might be an influenza B virus, he said. Symptoms, including muscle pain, headache, sore throat, runny nose, coughing and fever, lasted around five to seven days.

At least seven schools in Wellington have high numbers of sick children, including St Marks Church School, which has asked parents to keep children away until Monday to help break the cycle of pupils infecting one another.

Just 12 pupils from a roll of about 400 turned up to school after it asked parents to keep children home.

In Auckland, the Regional Public Health Service has begun contacting schools to check on absences and advise on how to stop viruses spreading. Dr Simmons said 20 per cent to 25 per cent of children were absent at some schools.

Pt Chevalier School said about 100 of its 585 pupils were away yesterday.

Principal Sandra Aitken said staff first noticed the increase in absences last week. "Once you've got teachers saying, 'I've only got nine students in class today', you realise it's a problem."

She sent a note to parents asking them to keep sick children at home.

At Remuera Intermediate School, deputy principal and coach Matthew Crumpton said one-third of his year 8 girls' soccer team missed the eastern zone tournament yesterday.

About 160 of the school's 800 students were away yesterday.

One parent, Jimena Small, said her 11-year-old son had returned to Glen Eden Intermediate last week after missing two days with a stomach ache, fever and sore throat. But this week the symptoms returned.

"Usually he never gets sick," said Mrs Small. "[Wednesday] night was a really full-on fever."

Dr Aickin said children with other than critical needs were waiting up to six hours to see a doctor in Starship's emergency department because of a rush of patients with respiratory or gastric illnesses or fevers.

Many patients had to wait in the department, in some cases more than 24 hours, for admission to a ward.

Middlemore Hospital has also been swamped.

Emergency department nurse-manager Mary McManaway said the number of children presenting with flu-like symptoms and vomiting had increased significantly.

Winter health tips

* Cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing.

* Wash and dry hands frequently.

* Stay home if unwell to avoid infecting others.

* Drink plenty of fluids.

- additional reporting: NZPA