ABU DHABI // Eight students at International Community School were sent home with a low-grade fever, prompting the school to temporarily close two classrooms on Wednesday.
The school’s nurse alerted the principal after four students from the same Grade 4 classroom had sought her care within about one hour shortly after school started. By about 10 am, four more students visited the nurse complaining of feeling warm and groggy. In all five boys and three girls registered an above-normal temperature.
“We started taking normal precautions at that stage by alerting the parents of these students and that they were to come and pick up their kids and take them home and probably take them into a doctor to see if it’s something to be concerned about,” said Derek Griffin, principal of the Al Mushrif branch of the ICS.
The students’ temperatures ranged from a low of 37.4 C to a high of 38.6 C. Normal body temperature is about 37 C. According to the Health Authority Abu Dhabi, a fever is when a child’s body temperature reaches 37.5 C, if measured orally, or 38 if measured by ear.
“We can start treatment starting at 38, but we are not really concerned unless the fever is more than 38.5,” said Dr Nawar Tayara, paediatrician and paediatric pulmologist at the French Clinic in Dubai Healthcare City, adding anything below that point is a “mild fever.”
In a statement issued by the Abu Dhabi Education Council, the eight children did not suffer any other symptoms associated with the fever.
“No vomiting, diarrhea, or difficulty in breathing were reported,” according to Adec, who was one of a number of agencies alerted by the school of the incident.
At the advice of the contracted nursing service company, the nurse took the rest of the class through some basic hand-washing hygiene exercises.
“Also, at that stage, we took the decision that in order to contain any possible spread of an infection, we decided to alert the parents of the rest of the class and send them home,” said Mr Griffin. “At that stage, we also contacted a number of authorities. These were all precautionary measures that we took because obviously the health and welfare of our students is our priority and we tend to verge on the side of caution rather than run the risk of not taking adequate precautions.”
Mr Griffin notified a number of authorities, including Adec and the Health Authority-Abu Dhabi, of the incidence and decided to close the Grade 3 and Grade 4 classrooms, which were next to each other, for the rest of the afternoon.
As of Wednesday evening, Mr Griffin said the fever had already receded in many of the affected children. The school will operate as usual on Thursday.
“We’ve been given a clean bill of health by the health authorities and Adec to open the school and continue our activities and classes as normal throughout the school tomorrow, for all classes,” said Mr Griffin.
rpennington@thenational.ae
