The 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic and Minnesota's K-12 schools: public health lessons learned.
Prior to 2009, influenza pandemic planners had primarily planned for a virus that would originate in a location other than North America, giving public health officials in the United States time to determine its severity before widespread disease occurred here. Thus, response plans for schools focused on closure in the case of a severe pandemic and potential closure in the event of a moderate one. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic, however, presented a different scenario. The severity of 2009 H1N1 was initially unknown and later was determined to be mild to moderate. Thus, as the pandemic unfolded, state and national public health entities found themselves adapting their recommendations for school closure. This article reviews Minnesota's experience with 2009 H1N1, focusing on the pandemic among school-aged children during the spring (April to August 2009) and fall (September 2009 to April 2010), and it chronicles how outbreak surveillance policies and recommendations for K-12 schools changed over the course of the pandemic.
Minnesota Department of Health, USA.
Kathryn
K
Como-Sabetti
Franci
F
Livingston
Pamala
P
Gahr
Kayla
K
Nagle
Karen
K
Martin
Craig
C
Morin
Elizabeth
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Parilla
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D053118:Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D008297:Male; D008910:Minnesota; D058873:Pandemics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012574:Schools