JEDDAH/RIYADH: The girls’ section of a large private school in Jeddah closed for a week starting Saturday. The closure is thought to be due to swine flu.
School authorities informed parents of the closure on Thursday via SMS text messages. The messages also asked parents to inform the school if any of their children show swine flu symptoms.
The message, however, did not mention whether any students have died from the virus or whether there is a large number of students who are infected with the illness.
On the other hand, Abdul Al-Kareem Al-Hoqail, director of the Girls’ Education Department in Jeddah, denied that any school had been closed. “By Wednesday evening, we hadn’t received any information about this,” he said, adding that the suspension of classes because of a contagious disease or death falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Health.
Health sources said investigations were underway about the size of the infection, but denied any deaths had occurred.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health advised people on Friday to take extra precautions against a possible second wave of swine flu with the coming of winter. The ministry said there has been a noticeable increase in swine flu across the Kingdom since mid-October due to a fall in temperature.
“During the transition period from autumn to winter, transmission of the flu from human to human can be faster than ever,” a ministry official said. He added that swine flu experts have said that the change in weather could aggravate the condition and lead to deaths.
“This is a season when a second wave of H1N1 could spread rapidly from human to human in this part of world as it has happened in the northern hemisphere,” he added.
There were 1.8 million to 5.7 million cases of swine flu in the United States during the epidemic’s first spring wave, according to a new estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was released on Thursday.
