Whats the benefit of school closing when theres a flu outbreak?
School closing may be necessary for a few days at the peak of flu season if there aren’t enough students and staff members on hand to keep things running normally. Usually, though, school closing is meant to reduce the spread of an infectious disease circulating in the community. Decisions about school closing are made locally by school districts, in consultation with public health departments. The goal of school closing is to limit contact between infected and uninfected children. Because they have less natural immunity than adults do, children are more likely to get infected — particularly at school, where germs spread easily. Each child who brings the infection to school transmits it to a few others, who carry it from the classroom to a pool of contacts at home. Ideally, closing school should interrupt flu transmission before the infection makes its way into too many homes. Based on experience with H1N1 swine flu in spring 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) r
