Influenza Like Illness Cluster Detected At Petaling School

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Selangor health director Dr Sha’ari Ngadiman said the infection rate at education institutions, especially boarding schools, had shown a slight increase over the past two weeks. (Bernama pic)PETALING JAYA: The Selangor health department has closed the hostel of a secondary  school in Petaling following the detection of an influenza-like-illness (ILI) cluster there.
State health director Dr Sha’ari Ngadiman said the hostel had been temporarily closed for sanitisation to be carried out.
He said the hostel will only reopen after the Petaling district health office has carried out its risk assessment to ensure the safety of the students.
Sha’ari told Bernama the cluster was detected when the district health office was notified that 110 students were down with fever, cough, flu and sore throat.
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The first case was identified on June 14.
As of yesterday, the number of students showing such symptoms had increased to 191, giving an infection rate of 32.5%.
Of the total, five were confirmed positive for Influenza A, while 13 other samples were awaiting results.
“One patient is in hospital for observation and is in stable condition. The results of Covid-19 tests conducted on 30 symptomatic students all came back negative,” he said in a statement today.
Earlier this week, Sha’ari said an ILI cluster affecting more than 200 students had also been detected at a fully residential school in Gombak district.
He said the overall ILI situation in the state was under control but the infection rates at education institutions, especially boarding schools, had shown a slight increase over the past two weeks.
“Among the factors that contributed to the increase are the lack of gate-keeping screening at schools, an increase in group activities, physical contact among students and poor personal hygiene,” he said.
He urged the public, including administrators of educational institutions and care centres, to always practise proper hygiene. - FMT

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