U.S. Issues Swine Flu Guidelines for Day-Care Programs

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Parents and day-care providers also need to plan now for a swine flu outbreak, Sebelius said. "Parents need to figure out what to do if their child-care center closes. For providers, it is critical to think about staffing and who can step in as temporary staff," she said.

Day-care providers should monitor children and staffers for signs of the flu, Dr. Beth Bell, associate director for science at the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during the teleconference.

"Program providers should do a daily health check of children and staff looking for signs of illness, so that sick children and staff can be identified, can be separated from well people as soon as possible and, when feasible, sent home," she said.

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The CDC guidelines included these recommendations:

• Wash hands often with soap and water; keep hands away from the nose, mouth and eyes; and cover noses and mouths when coughing or sneezing. Use a shirt sleeve or elbow if no tissue is available.
• Clean the environment regularly. Areas and items that are dirty should be cleaned immediately, and all areas should be regularly cleaned, especially toys and play areas.
• Staffers at high risk for flu complications and parents of children under age 5 who become ill with flu-like illness should call their doctor as soon as possible to see if they need antiviral treatment.
• If the swine flu outbreak is severe, consider temporarily closing the day-care center to decrease the spread of infection. This decision should be made locally, in concert with public health officials, and should balance the risks of keeping a program open with the social and economic problems that can come from closing a program.

These guidelines may need to be revisited and revised should the swine flu prove more dangerous this fall and winter, health officials said. Under those conditions:

• Let high-risk staffers stay home.
• Increase the distance between children, and separate children into small groups of six or less.
• Have children stay home if there are others in the household with the swine flu.
• There may also be the need to close the program either as a reaction to the outbreak or as a preventive closure.

More information

For more on H1N1 swine flu, visit the Flu.Gov.

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