DURBAN - A Pietermaritzburg school has confirmed that a 9-year-old pupil, who has since died, and two other pupils had the influenza A (H1N1) virus - commonly known as swine flu.
Giselle Dariele Chetty’s funeral was held on Monday after she died within three days of displaying flu-like symptoms.
Deccan Road Primary School issued a notice yesterday advising parents to keep children at home for the next three days while the school was sanitised.
“In consultation with the relevant stakeholders, we have decided to sanitise the entire school over the next 72 hours. Due to the chemicals utilised during this process, we were advised by the Environmental Health Department that you should keep your child/ward home during this process,” stated the notice.
Yesterday, the school’s governing body chairperson, Rumen Maistry, said they had met with all the role-players, including the Department of Environmental Health and Safety, the Department of Health's district Communicable Disease Control division and the co-ordinator from Northdale Hospital.
Maistry said parents were issued with a notice once the presence of the virus was confirmed on Monday, which included the different symptoms that they needed to look out for.
“The children are our primary concern and we will do everything in our power as the governing body to ensure the safety of every child,” he said.
Giselle Chetty
Rachel Soobiah, who was speaking on behalf of the Chetty family, said the family was still in shock and was devastated over Giselle’s sudden death.
She said Giselle’s grandmother had been admitted to hospital on Saturday for observation and her 2-year-old brother had also been admitted with a high fever.
Both had been discharged and did not appear to have the virus.
“The family are still in shock because it all happened so fast that their focus was more on getting the baby better, knowing that they had just lost a child. They haven’t had much time to deal with it,” she said.
Soobiah said Giselle fell sick just two days after she celebrated her ninth birthday.
“She had a touch of flu on Wednesday, but on Thursday she got really sick and her dad took her to the doctor, and on Friday when he came home from work he found her in a bad condition. He rushed her to the hospital but by then she had already passed on,” said Soobiah.
Soobiah said the doctor had given Giselle an injection and medication that included an antibiotic.
Durban doctor Carmen James said that the H1N1 virus or any strain of flu was difficult to treat.
“The influenza virus mutates a lot and looks different every season, and it can be highly challenging to treat because of that,” she said.
James added that the symptoms of flu were similar to a common cold and included fever, coughing and fatigue.
She said that people who are at risk included the very young and the very old.
The departments of Health and Education did not respond to requests for comment.