Swine flu struck quickly this week at Hartland South Elementary School, where last Friday only about 4% of students called in sick. By Tuesday, the school had crossed the magic 40% mark -- and officials with the Hartland-Lakeside School District in Hartland, Wis., closed the school down. It won't reopen until Monday.
"It just brewed over the weekend," says school nurse Colleen Beilfuss.
What happened in Wisconsin is apparently happening elsewhere: The U.S. Department of Education reported Wednesday that 198 schools in 15 states had closed because of high absentee rates from the H1N1 virus, or swine flu.
The figures -- up from just 11 schools in five states on Monday -- represent the largest jump in school closures this fall. In all, 65,317 students are out of school because of H1N1, the department says, up from just 2,213 on Monday.
And that may just be the beginning, says Amy Garcia, executive director of the National Association of School Nurses. She says it's likely that contagion rates for H1N1 "will continue to increase until a good percentage of the population has either had it or has been vaccinated against it."
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