Swine flu hits Achimota Basic School

Daily Graphic (front page) Monday, March 29/10

Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
THE H1N1 flu, otherwise known as swine flu, does not seem to go away, with the Achimota Basic School being its latest victim.
Three cases of the H1N1 flu have compelled the authorities to close down the school for two weeks.
The Lincoln Community School in Accra was the first to have been hit by the swine flu in the latter part of last year. Since then, it has spread to the Okuapeman Senior High School in the Eastern Region, the Merton Primary in Accra and the Tema Parents School.
At the Achimota Basic School, students in the boarding house have been asked to stay at home until April 6, 2010 to allow for the fumigation of the school.
The Headmaster, Mr Frank Armah, told an Accra FM station that the school was closed down on the directive of the Director of Basic Education at the Ministry of Education, Mr Stephen Adu.
Pupils in the Primary and the Junior High School departments were sent home at the weekend after a test at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical and Research (NMIMR) had confirmed that three children had been infected with the swine flu.
The school had been deserted when the Daily Graphic visited the place on Sunday, with no sign of any primary or JHS student being around.
Only students of the senior high school could be seen around.
The news of the outbreak of the disease had been reported in the media as of March 24, 2010. However, the reports suggested that authorities of the school were trying to hush it, although they had brought in doctors to educate the pupils on the disease.
The Greater Accra Regional Health Directorate confirmed the outbreak of the H1N1 influenza early last week in an interview with a local FM station in Accra.
The Schedule Officer at the directorate, Mr O. Wula, at that time said the school was strictly monitoring events, even though the situation was not alarming.
Some parents who spoke to the station on condition of anonymity blamed the authorities of the Achimota School for trying to put a lid on the outbreak of the H1N1 influenza in the school.
The parents demanded that their children be released so that they (parents) could take them to their private doctors, since they suspected that the treatment being administered to them at the school might not be the best.
In an interview on the same network, a human rights advocate, Nana Oye Lithur, called for legal action to be taken against teachers of the school whom she accused of harbouring the children after the H1N1 influenza had been detected there.
According to her, parents had the right to know the health status of their children, yet when the disease was detected, school authorities did not inform the parents but rather brought in doctors to educate the children on the disease.
Nana Lithur said bringing in doctors to diagnose and educate the children was in the right direction but the authorities should have informed the children’s parents.