13 TEST POSITIVE FOR SWINE FLU AT TEMA PARENTS SCHOOL (DAILY GRAPHIC, PAGE 11, FRI, MARCH 19, 2010)

THIRTEEN pupils of Tema Parents Association School have tested positive to the HINI influenza (swine flu).
As a result, the school has been closed down.
The decision was taken on Wednesday at an emergency meeting by the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the school, the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), the Tema Metropolitan Directorate of Education and the Greater Accra Regional Health Directorate.
A letter signed by the Assistant Headmaster of the school, Mr Abraham Afer, to parents on Wednesday indicated that the school would remain closed until May 5, 2010, when the next academic term begins.
In view of the closure, the pupils will miss out the rest of their classes for the term and their second terminal examinations.
When the Daily Graphic visited the school at about 9a.m. on Thursday morning, the entire environment looked deserted while staff and management engaged in a serious prayer session with a few of the staff assisting the final-year students, who would be taking part in this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in April this year.
Management and staff were, however, tight-lipped over the new development. A staff member who gave his name only as PAX walked this reporter out of the school premises amidst insinuations.
Two levels of the school which were initially affected, suspended classes earlier in the week but examinations conducted on the children and later revelations had compelled the authorities to get the children to go home.
Daily Graphic sources confirmed that the 13 pupils tested positive following preliminary tests conducted on them at the Tema Polyclinic.
The source said the school’s management had tasked parents to take measures to vaccinate their children as they awaited the certified results from the Noguchi Memorial Centre.
The unfortunate incident is believed to have spread in the school through a child who was sent outside the country on vacation by the parents and might have been infected there.
According to the Tema Metro Health Director, Dr Ernestina Quainoo, specimen of phlegm’s of 150 children from the school who were coughing had been forwarded to the Noguchi Memorial Centre for analysis after parents of the affected children had taken them to hospital at the weekend with symptoms of fever and cold.
It would be recalled that two levels of the school which were initially affected suspended classes earlier in the week, but examinations conducted on the children and later revelations compelled the authorities to close down the school and get the children examined and where necessary treated.