The children at St. Margaret Elementary School in Bel Air appear healthy, yet as many as 30% of their counterparts at the middle school campus fell ill last week.
"We were doing everything we were suppose to do,” said Principal Jane Dean, “Wiping down desks, having kids wash their hands, cleaning crew wipe off common areas so we were following all the precautions we had put in place since the first day of school, but when it happens, it happens."
Harford County’s Deputy Health Officer, Dr. Yngvild Olsen, says the county’s entire supply of 700 flu-mist vaccines will go to children at those schools.
"The combined number of students between the elementary and the middle school would match that number 700 that we got, and we really wanted to do a complete school and not partial schools," said Olsen.
Olsen says the live flu-mist has not been approved for pregnant women and some other high-risk groups, but has proven safe and effective for children from ages two-to-18.
While absenteeism reached 30% at St. Margaret’s, at John Carroll School---a private high school and Bel Air and at Aberdeen Middle School, one out of 10 students have been out ill in recent weeks.
Here county health leaders must play a waiting game---identifying where each shipment of the vaccine can do the most good whenever that shipment becomes available.
"What we don't really have clarity on is when and how that vaccine will actually be dispersed and whether it will be on a daily basis, weekly... that's really unclear at this point," said Olsen.
In the meantime, health officials say the public must continue to protect itself.
"Hand washing, cough and sneeze etiquette, make sure you stay home if you're ill and obviously try to avoid places where we know people are sick," said Harford County Health Department Spokesman bill Wiseman.
School leaders at St. Margaret’s believe those steps have brought the number of reported cases on campus from 74 to 18 in just five days.
