Greenbrier High School - flu season or ????

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http://www.wkrn.com/Global/story.asp?S=1520923 & nav=1ugFJ3ah

Greenbriar school copes with severe viral outbreak Greenbrier High School saw 190 students absent on Monday - almost a fourth of its student body out sick. On Tuesday, 250 kids either stayed home or were sent home. This as students flooded the nurse's office with all kinds of symptoms. Just what's going around?

Medders is one of many students at Greenbrier High in the nurses office, complaining of the same symptoms.

said, "Everybody's been throwing up and running fevers and having headaches really bad."

is being sent home. School staff don't know if this is the flu season starting early. What they do is that many of the kids are complaining of classic flu symptoms.

"Body aches, headaches...today the highest temp was 100.5, but in the past week it's been 101.5 to 102," said school nurse Dawn Oddon.

Nurse Oddon, who normally sees 20-to-25 kids daily, has seen those numbers almost quadruple since late last week. And whatever kids have, it's contagious.

"I'm encouraging the students and the parents to go to the doctor. At a 102 fever, I think that's kind of high for a student of this age," said Oddon.

And there's something else school staff are encouraging parents to do. School staff say kids should stay home until they feel better and their fever is gone. They say this is the best way to minimize the risk of that sick child passing something on to a classmate or teacher.

Greenbriar High principal Gertrude Deal said, "If their children are sick and have temperatures, please don't send them to school."

Health experts say this is the time of year bugs start going around making people sick. Nurse Oddon says there are things parents can monitor to minimize the risk of their kids getting sick, or of passing a virus on to a family member.

Oddon said, "Parents need to take temperatures and keep an eye on the hand washing. A lot of the students will wash their hands under water and say, 'Okay, I've washed my hands.' Good hand washing with soap and water is very important."

Hand sanitizers also work, and can be easily kept in a backpack or purse. And if kids are already sick, they need to stay home until completely well. Nurse Oddon also says that one of the big mistakes kids make is sharing food and drinks. She says sharing a sip with a sick student is a sure fire way of picking up an unwanted virus.

What about the other schools in Greenbriar? Are as many kids sick there as well? The on County Schools office tells us both the elementary and middle school are seeing more kids sick than usual, but nothing compared to the numbers Greenbriar High is experiencing.

Silvia Castaneda for News 2 at 4:30 and 6 pm11.11.03