Wellington schools hit by mystery bug

A Wellington primary school is struggling with two mystery viruses that today has at least 70 pupils away from school and says it is considering shutting for a day to break the cycle.

Health authorities will be contacting resthomes in Wellington to warn them about the bugs circulating in Wellington primary schools, but say closing schools down for a day would be unlikely to slow the spread of the diseases.

Wellington medical officer of health Margot McLean this morning about two or three Wellington schools were affected, though she declined to name them.

In the past week, St Mark's Church School in Mount Victoria has been plagued by two illnesses, with as many as 77 of its approximately 400 pupils away sick on any given day.

Today about 70 children were sick either with a vomiting, diarrhoea, headache and high fever bug or a chesty cough and laryngitis.

Principal Tina Leach this morning told NZPA the school hoped it had turned the corner but was still considering closing for a day and a decision would be made this afternoon.

"We're monitoring it very closely."

She said they didn't know exactly what the bugs were but they appeared very infectious.

Wellington medical officer of health Margot McLean has said although health officials suspected two viruses were to blame, they had not yet been identified.

It was difficult to stop the spread of such diseases. "Part of the problem with norovirus is it's a very infectious bug -- you don't need a lot of the virus to get it from one person to the other."

She was hopeful the bugs would be able to be identified through testing.

Public health would be getting in touch with resthomes in the region, warning them about the illnesses, Dr McLean said.

She was less worried about the illnesses running through workplaces. "I would be more worried about places like resthomes where it can cause severe problems. She was not aware of any other regions with the same problem.

"These are elderly people who are less able to withstand it."

Dr McLean did not believe closing schools for a day would help slow the spread of the illnesses. "These noroviruses tend to run their course, particularly in schools, there's not a lot you can do once they get going

"The main thing we can do is to provide advice to schools on reinforcing handwashing messages to the children."

Parents should also keep children home for a day or so after they seemed well.

Mrs Leach believed things might be improving at her school as only one teacher was still away sick.

If the school "closed", teachers would still be on duty where parents could not keep their children at home.

Parents were proving cautious after a newsletter was sent home informing them of the sickness troubles. "We've got numbers of them calling in this morning saying they don't want the bug and they're keeping the kids home."

When the illnesses started last week, about 25 were sick, rising to 65 on Friday, then 77 on Monday, 62 yesterday and about 70 today.

Mrs Leach said some classes had had as few as six pupils attending.

Although some teachers had also been ill there had been no problems finding relieving teachers.

- NZPA