Hundreds of kids out sick in Morden, Man., 'very unusual' situation, says school division

A bug is going around Morden that's affecting hundreds of young students in the southern Manitoba city, the area's school division says. 

Just over 2,000 students combined attend the four schools in Morden, about 100 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg. This week, nearly 400 students from kindergarten to Grade 4 alone in Morden have been out sick, says Cyndy Kutzner, assistant superintendent of Western School Division. That prompted the division to contact the province's Public Health agency.

"I've been in public schools for very many years, and … seldomly do we have to phone public health because of illnesses," she told CBC News, adding that the school division might be in contact with Manitoba Public Health once or twice each year.

"To have three of our four schools with that much illness has just been very unusual for us — and to the levels of illness as well."

The illnesses going around include strep throat, influenza, colds, general unwellness with a fever, and "a couple cases of [mononucleosis]," she said.

Public Health is keeping an eye on things, and advising the school division on how to promote cleanliness — like how to properly wash your hands. Otherwise, the health agency does not appear to be worried, Kutzner said.

"It is not unusual to see an increase in school absenteeism at this time of year due to illness, including respiratory illness," a provincial spokesperson said in an email Wednesday.

The Southern Health authority is working with the division to monitor the situation, the spokesperson said.

In addition to reminding people that the flu shot is recommended for all adults and for children over the age of six months, the province says "it is also important to shield your coughs and sneezes, wash your hands regularly and stay home when you are sick."

Spike started last week

If at least 10 per cent of a school's population is absent, that must be reported to the school division, Kutzner said. Once reported, the school division looks into the cause of the absences.

"Sometimes it's because kids are away for different reasons, sometimes it's illness," she said, adding that if absences due to illness exceed 10 per cent of the student population, the school also has to contact public health.

Around Tuesday of last week, the school division noticed that École Morden Middle School's absence rate was 17 per cent — 10 per cent of which was due to illness, Kutzner said.

"For the rest of the week, the middle school stayed at absenteeism due to illness over 10 per cent," she said, adding that the other schools were below 10 per cent absenteeism until this week.

"We noticed a big jump, especially in our two … K to 4 schools — their absenteeism rates went up higher."

A third of students at Minnewasta and Maple Leaf schools, the division's two kindergarten to Grade 4 schools, were out sick, Kutzner said.

To put those figures into perspective, Kutzner says Minnewasta School has just under 400 students. A third of its population would be roughly 130 children.

Maple Leaf School had about 160 students out sick yesterday, she added.

Meanwhile, the middle school's absence rate due to illness spiked to 25 per cent, Kutzner said.

The high school never went over 10 per cent.

Part of the issue, she notes, is that when a group of infected children returns to school before they've recovered, another wave of students will be off sick.

"It just seems to have spread through lots and lots of kids," she said, adding that a few staff members have been sick too, though not at the same rate.