WOODFORD GRN: More school swine flu outbreaks suspected (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

WOODFORD GRN: More school swine flu outbreaks suspected

12:55pm Friday 10th July 2009 in

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TWO more Woodford Green schools have been hit with suspected swine flu outbreaks.

Children at both Trinity Catholic High and St Anthony's RC Primary are thought to have caught the potentially deadly virus within the past week.

However health chiefs are no longer swabbing pupils for the virus, so their diagnosis remains unconfirmed.

The Government has advised all the nation's schools to remain open even if they do report cases of swine flu, as closures would not help prevent the spread of the illness.

The news comes as the council announced it could prosecute any parents who withdraw healthy children from school without good reason.

Many schools have warned parents they expect "full attendance" if pupils show no signs of being unwell.

But one parent, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "I am very concerned. I think we are so close to the summer holidays that the schools should shut now.

"We are due to go abroad as soon as they break up from school and the last thing I want is to be stuck abroad if my children catch swine flu from school next week.

"As parents we should have a say in the health of our children and to prosecute parents who wish to keep their children away from a virus which in some cases could be life threatening is madness.

"The only reason they are not shutting schools is because the government wants to save face and not cause a panic."

NHS Redbridge said last week the virus was "circulating at large" in the borough.