Flu-like outbreak keeps hundreds of students away from Dauphin schools

An outbreak of a severe flu-like illness has hit the Dauphin area.

Almost half of the 280 students at MacKenzie Middle School did not show up for class Friday, said Jack Sullivan, superintendent of the Mountain View School Division.

The school sent home a letter on Wednesday to notify parents that a number of students in Grades 7 and 8 had come down with a severe type of flu, he said. Sullivan said he suspects some of the absences on Friday were due to parents keeping their children home because of the anxiety around swine flu.

One parent, Shelley Sorenson, told CBC News that her two children have been sick all week.

"On Saturday, my  kids and quite a few of their friends woke up with fevers and runny  noses and flu-like symptoms," she said. "They have exams coming up, they have a prom coming up, and they're worried."

The division is also monitoring Whitmore School, where 30 of 135 students stayed home Friday.

The schools will be cleaned over the weekend, Sullivan said, adding that the Parklands Regional Health Authority is monitoring the situation.

Dauphin is about 250 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. The letter sent to parents can be viewed by clicking on the link at the top right corner of this page.

Further north in St. Theresa Point First Nation, about 500 kilometres from Winnipeg, more than 200 people have reported falling ill with severe flu-like symptoms in the past week. The majority of them are being treated in the community, but 21 have been sent to hospitals in Winnipeg.

There have been two cases of swine flu confirmed in the community.