News From Our Nurse

News From Our Nurse:

As always, we are monitoring students for signs of illness.  Illness is tracked through our attendance.  It is very important if your child is ill or will be absent from school, to call and report the absence to the front office before 9:00am each day.  If an increase in illness is noted that affects 5-10% of our student population, the Health Department is notified.  Students with a fever will be sent home.  Even without a fever, we might be sending a student home if we see symptoms interfering with their ability to learn at school or indicative of contagious illness.  We are encouraging handwashing and reminding students to cough and sneeze into their elbows (not their hands). 

Enterovirus D68 has been in the news recently.  We have not had any cases at Heritage, but will be continuing to monitor the situation along with Johnson County Health Department.  We are seeing normal childhood illness such as fevers with headache, strep, and stomach flu.  We have also had several cases of Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease. 

Hand, foot, and mouth disease is a common viral illness in children.  It usually starts with a fever, poor appetite, a vague feeling of being unwell, and sore throat. One or 2 days after fever starts, painful sores usually develop in the mouth. They begin as small red spots that blister and that often become ulcers. The sores are often in the back of the mouth. A skin rash develops over 1 to 2 days. The rash has flat or raised red spots, sometimes with blisters. The rash is usually on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet; it may also appear on the knees, elbows, buttocks or genital area.

Before your child may return to school they must be fever free for 24 hours and have no open lesions and no new blisters forming.  Blisters must be scabbed over.  It is helpful to report any cases to the school nurse, as this information is tracked to keep the entire school community healthy.  If you have questions about when your child can return to school, please talk with the school nurse.