Enterovirus attack!

Our school has over 5 kids down with this bug- it’s pretty serious I heard and supposedly taiwanese law says over 4 kids and the government health officials need to visit, sterilize and shut the place down for a week or two to quarantine the school? Since its been known to be deadly. Yes, we lose money and pay if we get shut down, but we’re talking about the safety ofour students here. Money is money, but damn people…The school’s been making an effort to sterilize the school on its own alright, but still…uh-our boss is SO NOT ABOUT reporting this. She’s downplaying it and telling me that calling in the government people will make it worse because they will give us trouble. Wondering what to do if anything. advice? anyone gone through something like this before? what usually happens here?

Enterovirus is an umbrella name for a whole string of infections. One common type is seen nearly as frequently as ‘the common cold’ and seasonal influenza. Others, like Polio, are far more serious.

Unless you know what exactly is being spread, it may not be worth doing anything. Also, how do you know for certain it is an enterovirus that is being spread? The word itself seems to oftentimes spread mass panic. However, if it has been discovered to be the case, it would take a doctor to name it for what it is, and hopefully, if it is something of concern, the proper authorities would be notified already.

If you think it is something serious then you might consider contacting someone to check it out. This could prevent other people (children, parents, teachers, YOU) from getting sick.

Anyhow, here’s some good info on enteroviruses: cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/ent … entero.htm

Apparently there’s an outbreak or epidemic at the moment. Form what the teachers told me it’s contagious, but adults can’t get it. At our school the kids ahve to stay home if they’re sick at the moment. We’ve got 4 away.

Brian

And collect your final paycheck straight after that I would think. :slight_smile:

Some doctors call anything Enterovirus and whack the kids into hospital when it isn’t that serious.

If you have the ability to understand the entire situation, then, and only then, would I act. I wouldn’t, in 90% of the situations, understand this situation clear enough to want to see a school closed down for a few weeks.

Taiwan public health authorities define an outbreak as three or more. if u have four children with confirmed enterovirus who were all sent to the same hospital for treatment, don’t worry, its the hospital’s legal responsibility to call for an epidemiological survey of the situation.

in the interest of public health, you should go ahead and report it. fuck the boss, she only has $$ in mind. enteroviruses don’t have to kill you, but they can kill the young and the elderly.

most likely taiwan cdc and taipei cdc (assuming ur up north) will initiate an investigation to understand the source, cause and scale of the outbreak. infected individuals will, of course, be placed in quarantine and the school will be disinfected. the remaining students will be given regular checkups for a while until it is determined safe. oh yeha, the school may have to be closed for a short period. big deal? perhaps lives are at stake. if nothing actually turns up after the investigation…then well…so be it…thank god nothing really happened i suppose

if u need assistance reporting this…pm me

-chris

My daughter’s kindy has closed a class and it can kill little kids! Remind everyone to wash hands and be careful about spit, snot and other bodily dribbles as they contain have the virus. I rather not be associated with the needless death of a child.

[quote=“Bassman”]Some doctors call anything Enterovirus and whack the kids into hospital when it isn’t that serious.
[/quote]

Our school is concerned about Dr’s riding the cash cow of public fear and chucking kids into hospital. They do that.

That being said… there are lives at risk. But, in some cases one must ask… “are there really lives at risk?”

Catch my drift? :idunno: :slight_smile:

[quote=“Bassman”][quote=“Bassman”]Some doctors call anything Enterovirus and whack the kids into hospital when it isn’t that serious.
[/quote]

Our school is concerned about Dr’s riding the cash cow of public fear and chucking kids into hospital. They do that.

That being said… there are lives at risk. But, in some cases one must ask… “are there really lives at risk?”

Catch my drift? :idunno: :slight_smile:[/quote]

i catch ur drift and it sounds like you would like to protect the school.

theres no cash cow to be enjoyed when the government epidemiologists from the CDC investigate facilities such as the buxiban we are discussing. private doctors would rather spend their time doing other less time consuming/better paying activities.

effective infectious disease control requires everyones participation. i wouldn’t play ‘wait and see’ with this. disinfect, quarantine, and perform individual case epidemiological screening. whats important is stopping this at the source. maybe the kids brought this from their elementary school via ingested food or liquid, maybe they got it on the buxiban shuttle bus, i don’t know, and neither do any of you, thats why we need to get an investigation started asap.

[quote=“mungacious”][quote=“Bassman”][quote=“Bassman”]Some doctors call anything Enterovirus and whack the kids into hospital when it isn’t that serious.
[/quote]

Our school is concerned about Dr’s riding the cash cow of public fear and chucking kids into hospital. They do that.

That being said… there are lives at risk. But, in some cases one must ask… “are there really lives at risk?”

Catch my drift? :idunno: :slight_smile:[/quote]

i catch your drift and it sounds like you would like to protect the school.

theres no cash cow to be enjoyed when the government epidemiologists from the CDC investigate facilities such as the buxiban we are discussing. private doctors would rather spend their time doing other less time consuming/better paying activities.

effective infectious disease control requires everyones participation. I wouldn’t play ‘wait and see’ with this. disinfect, quarantine, and perform individual case epidemiological screening. whats important is stopping this at the source. maybe the kids brought this from their elementary school via ingested food or liquid, maybe they got it on the buxiban shuttle bus, I don’t know, and neither do any of you, thats why we need to get an investigation started asap.[/quote]

What I meant by the Dr’s riding the cash cow is this…

Kid goes to Dr… usually at a hospital
Dr. isn’t sure… (sometimes even if they are sure)
Dr. puts kid into hospital
Hospital gets insurance money
3 or four kids from the same school see the same Dr…
bingo
an epidemic…
I’ve seen it happen, BTW, my neighbor is a Dr. (no, he doesn’t do that).

BUT,

I do agree that everyone needs to take some steps to
a) find the source
b) make sure the buildings are sanitary and continue to be so.
c) take some steps to eliminate potential threats.

I’ve been hearing from my co-workers and managers at work that there has been some kind of an outbreak of some type of fever. As far as I know it’s only been occuring among children, and symptoms include red spots on the hands, face and feet.

From what I’ve heard, dozens of kids around Taiwan but mostly in the northern area of the island (including Taipei) have actually died from this. Supposedly, a school in the Nangan area of Taipei has partially shut down.

All of what I’ve been told has come from my work, and they’ve been fairly sketchy on the details. They don’t seem particularly worried, which leads me to believe that they’re either trying to prevent people from panicking, or that it’s really not as a big of a deal as the rumors I’ve been hearing make it out to be.

I don’t know if there is any truth to it, since I haven’t seen anything reported in any of the English newspapers, but I think it’s worth taking notice because of the amount of attention it seems to be getting at HESS- the school I teach for.

They called some emergency meeting of their branch managers the other day, and at least one branch has decided that if three kids in a class get sick, they’ll close the class.

Has anyone heard anything about this?

it’s just the normal summertime enterioviro virus, nothing bad. just wash your hands (every two minutes)

That’s news to me…but I’ll keep an eye out for more.

This is Taiwan. What’s summer without a horrible disease scare?

Enterovirus like cola said it goes around every year and some years are much worse than others. It is lethal to young children, but not always.

Yes, they’re different every year, but there are some signs you can look for…sores in the mouth and on the hands and knees, and then the fever. I think these are all related, no?
My school’s been getting outside cleaners in for a month now. Everybody who comes in the door gets sprayed with some stuff, and the teachers also keep surfaces superclean during the day. Today we washed all our toys, and the kids are now only allowed to use their own crayons and do stuff like color or draw. The blocks have been put away for a while.
Still two of the kids had to stay at home because they got related viruses (not the serious one, but related), and I hear there’s a new one going around that affects the lungs. That one apparently killed two kids over the weekend in some hospital.
Anybody know more?
(If the school is reluctant to do something it might be that they are afraid of closing down and don’t want to admit cases. I think five kids and the school has to close. Is this true?
Could also be that they just don’t believe anything we do can really make a difference. This stuff comes around every year, and the kids tend to get it no matter how much you clean or worry.)

It’s enterovirus. There have been sixty odd confimed cases this year and a few deaths. The virus is spread by fecal matter and getting coughed on. It can be fatal with very small children. Here is an article about the hand, foot, and mouth disease it causes. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand%2C_fo … th_disease

Please don’t get too freaked out about this. It is a concern if you have small children, but the media as usual is going all out to scare the bejesus out eveyone. Regular handwashing and avoiding public places where many little hands have been are the keys.

Most of the cases have been in central Taiwan, and the Center for Disease control says the peak has already passed although they are worried about deteriorating sanitation conditions down in Pingtung where all the flooding has been.

Enterovirus is scary. One of my sons got it when he was a toddler, and fatality rate was pretty high that year. We were mighty worried for a week or so.

Parents and educators can instill higher hygienic standards to reduce the spread of the disease - supervised washing of hands with regular intervals, and especially after bathroom, before eating and coming in from public areas. Keeping kids home from school/kindergarden when they have a cold (coughing/sneezing) is also a good idea.

Please do not take too lightly on this - the fatality rate have been higher some years than for SARS (if anyone remember that incident).