Category Archives: Nurse’s Notes

Influenza Alert

Steller Families & Staff,

In the past week or so, we have seen an increase in the number of students going home ill with flu-like symptoms, both here at Steller and across the school district.  I just received confirmation from ASD Health Services that Alaska is in the early stage of an outbreak of influenza (This “outbreak” occurs every year and indicates the start of Alaska’s flu season).

According to, Mike Bradley, MPH, DVM, the Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium,  “Most regions of the state are reporting cases ranging from a few to large numbers, especially here in Anchorage.  In typical years  outbreaks in a community can involve 10 – 40% of the population and range over a period of 5 – 6 weeks.”

As a reminder,  a sick student who appears ill should remain home.  Please do not send a sick student to school to be examined by the nurse.  This may expose others to unnecessary illnesses.

What can families, students, and school personnel do to keep from getting sick and spreading the flu?
*     Get the seasonal FLU Vaccine.  Everyone 6 months of age and older should get vaccinated against the flu.  The 2010-2011 flu vaccine protects against an influenza A H3N2 virus, an influenza B virus and the 2009 H1N1 virus that caused so much illness last season.
*     Cover your mouth and nose. The main way that the flu spreads is from person to person in the droplets produced by coughs and sneezes, so cover coughs or sneezes with your elbow instead of your hand. If you are wearing short sleeves, use a tissue and wash your hands immediately.
*     Practice good hand hygiene.  Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after coughing or sneezing. Hand sanitizers are also effective.
*     Stay home if you are sick. Keeping sick students at home means that they keep their viruses to themselves rather than sharing them with others.  Sick people should stay at home until at least 24 hours after they no longer have a fever or signs of a fever (without the use of fever-reducing medicine).
*     Clean surfaces and items that are more likely to have frequent hand contact such as desks, door knobs, keyboards, phones, or pens, with cleaning agents that are usually used in these areas.
Other important illness information:
*     Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) should not be given to children or teenagers; this can cause a rare but serious illness called Reye’s syndrome.
*     Contact your health care provider if you have an underlying respiratory illness or severe symptoms occur. Severe symptoms include: dehydration, not eating, listless, delusional, or unable to keep down any food or fluids, high fevers despite fever reducers, you have a high fever with rash, getting sick again after getting better, or with questions/concerns.

More information (and cool graphs related to this years confirmed flu levels) is available on the State of Alaska Influenza Surveillance website at:
http://www.epi.hss.state.ak.us/id/influenza/influenza.jsp

Wendy A. Williams, RN
School Nurse/504 Coordinator
Steller Secondary School

Albuterol Recall

January 3rd, the US FDA MedWatch reported a Ritedose Corporation voluntary recall of 0.083% Albuterol Sulfate Inhalation Solution. Please go to the recall notice for the container sizes and lot numbers recalled http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm238528.htm.

This product is recalled due to 2.5 mg/3 mL single use vials embossed with the wrong dosage concentration therefore, represents a potential significant health hazard. Consumers should immediately return the affected product to the place it was obtained (i.e. doctor’s office, pharmacy, etc.). For more information, contact Ritedose Corporation 803-935-3995 Monday through Friday 8am to 5 pm EST or: recall@ritedose.com.

Health Alert

For those Steller familes who may have a diabetic individual in the household, please be aware of the following product recall.

On December 22nd, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a Abbott Diabetes Care recall of 359 lots of glucose test strips marketed under the following brand names:
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm237900.htm ·         Precision Xceed Pro; ·         Precision Xtra; ·         Medisense Optium; ·         Optium; ·         OptiumEZ; and ·         ReliOn Ultima The recall pertains to certain lots of test strips distributed in the U.S. Other Abbott Diabetes Care products are not affected by the recall. The test strips being recalled may give falsely low blood glucose results.

To determine if your school health office or a student has a product being recalled:

Visit http://www.precisionoptiuminfo.com to look up test strip lot numbers, or

Call Abbott Diabetes Care customer service at 1-800-448-5234 (English) and 1-800-709-7010 (Spanish) to speak with a customer service representative.

Synthetic Marijuana Banned

As of January 1, 2011, synthetic marijuana aka Spice/K2 will be banned in Anchorage as well as Anchorage School District Schools.  As such, it will fall under the Drug & Alcohol Policy, resulting in a 10 day suspension for the first offense and potential expulsion on the second offense.  Please refer to the middle and high school handbooks for the specific policy and the  discipline related to its violation.