Back to School - Let the Diseases Begin
Children and infectious disease are inseparable pairs, especially in our crowded schools. Coupled by their inherent poor hygiene practices, and the lack of surface disinfection by the janitorial staff, the first week after school begins will hallmark the rise in viral illnesses, namely colds and gastrointestinal problems (diarrhea, vomiting).
We all know that kids are poor hand-washers even though the hands may get wet. If you watch a child washing their hands, you will note that they tend to miss the pads of the fingers where most of the germs reside. Since hand-washing tends to be one of our best defenses against getting ill, you can see why children get more colds than adults. Of course, children also bring colds home to their parents, who, in turn, will spread them around to people at work, and so on. Colds are truly the "Gift that Keeps on Giving."
When was the last time you visited a school restroom? While girls' restrooms are a bit cleaner (like girls), the boys' restroom is absolutely frightening. One wall is lined with urinals, but only one or two boys will use it simultaneously. The unused urinals in between are used as buffer urinals so no one will look at their penises. Most young boys will opt for the stalls, where they will freely pee on the seats, thus preventing any future use for defecation. Should an unlucky boy approach this urine-soaked toilet needing to have a bowel movement, he will often opt to try and hold it until he gets home. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. The idea of cleaning off someone's urine, or sitting down on that seat is more than some kids can tolerate. Unlike girls who develop the fine art of hovering above the seat, boys do not usually possess this advanced skill.
Most medical offices will see a rise in intestinal viruses (diarrhea and vomiting) soon after the beginning of school. These viruses are transmitted by the fecal-oral route (poop to mouth) usually from contaminated surfaces. Regardless of the bathroom act, handwashing is sparse, if at all.
By the end of September or early October, the new flu vaccines will start to arrive, just in time to get people immunized before Thanksgiving and Christmas. Since we really do not know how bad the flu season will be until it's actually here, most people line up for their flu vaccines based on faith (or fear). For the last several years in our office, we have run out of flu vaccine, even though we pre-ordered thousands of doses. Keep in mind that most community outbreaks of influenza typically originate in the schools. When children get the flu, parents will need to stay home from work and take care of them. A particularly bad flu season can slow down the economy.
We are seeing fewer cases of chicken pox, thanks in part to the vaccine. However, the vaccine is not as effective as we were led to believe. A second chicken pox vaccine (varicella) is now recommended. The fall and winter school months usually see the highest incidence of chicken pox.
Now is the time to be prepared. Make sure your children's immunizations are up to date, and be proactive when the flu vaccine for this year becomes available. Stress the importance of hand-washing to your children and see that they do it correctly. Just in case, make them wash their hands when they come home from school and get them to change their school clothes (many germs will hitchhike home on clothing).
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: pediatrics, infections, virus, flu, chicken pox, handwashing, immunization vaccine, health and wellness
16 Comments:
I work in a school and every night before I leave I take my disinfectent and clean every single table in my classroom. I also clean the door handles. I know the custodian's don't do a great job so I know my classroom is clean. I also buy at the beginning of the school year a gallon size hand sanitizer bottle. Everyday before snack I give each child a squirt to clean their hands and then do this before lunch. I have it sitting on my desk and the children are allowed to use it whenever they need to! Last year I had fewer children out sick than I have the past few years!
Last year my son had a child in his class whose brother had a weakened immune system due to cancer. It was imperative that the classroom be kept clean and disinfected for his sake. My son was not sick one time the whole year - not even the sniffles. Obviously classrooms can be properly disinfected and the children are much healthier because of it. So why isn't more emphasis put on routine cleaning and disinfecting???
I posted the first comment and we have been told that the custodians don't have enough time to clean every classroom every single night. We are on a rotating schedule. I feel if you can't get it done everyday then maybe you need to hire more staff! I agree that more empahsis should be put on disinfecting and cleaning!
I posted the second comment. Why don't schools have everyone pitch in? If each kid had to wipe down his own desk and chair with a Clorox wipe at the end of each day and the teachers took care of the common areas - craft tables, teachers desk, doorknobs and handles - it would only take 10 minutes and we wouldn't have to rely on the custodians...I agree more staff would be great but guess who ends up paying for that in the end...I'd rather have that money used for actual EDUCATION!!
Ok, getting a cold or the flu sucks but what about exposure to all those chemicals in all those disinfectants you want to slather on all surfaces?
From http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/19/HOGMVK05LQ1.DTL
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the air we breathe inside our homes could be as much as five times as polluted as the air outside.
One major reason: Common cleaning products contain chemicals that can be more dangerous than the germs themselves.
Kids can help clean...
I agree that kids should take pride in their schools and classroom and be partially responsible to properly clean their areas. It is good modeling and teaches them the principles of disinfection and sanitation.
In Japan, I watched children mopping floors and scrubbing bathrooms, and this was at an expensive PRIVATE school.
The school I work at does not allow the children to clean their desks. The solution they use is really powerful so they have the teachers clean the desks and the janitors. The solution has to be kept out of reach of children at all times. I do agree with children cleaning up after themselves, but when disinfectant is so powerful they don't want the children using it then I don't agree with it.
There are many VERY SAFE disinfectants that will not violate the janitor's union or the EPA. Lysol spray is one of them.
If the janitorial staff will DISINFECT (not just wipe off), then the kids would be safer. I once watched our own new janitorial team (since I work after-hours) use a FEATHER DUSTER to clean the surfaces in a medical office! Yes, that will kill those nasty germs...right!
It's not just colds and flu we are worried about! What about pneumonia, meningitis, salmonella, e. coli, hepatitis...not to mention HIV. The list goes on and on. I don't know the upbringing and backgrounds of the other kids in the class and I can't control their hygiene habits - but to protect my own children the school should be disinfecting common areas daily, either through the janitorial staff or by having the children and teachers pitch in.
Interesting comment Dr. Moser regarding the private school in Japan. Even the elite foreigners expect their kids to contribute - unlike here, where we are raising a nation of spoiled brats.
That would make an interesting (albeit controversial) topic for you to write about, yes?
Don,t blame it on the custodians! Do you actually know all the work they have to do. It is not an easy job as you might think. It is a very physical job. You should thank your custodians for doing the good job that they do,with the time and sometimes with not enough staff. They work with the supplies given to them. Try it for aday and see how you could do it better.
The janitorial staff (like children) need to be TAUGHT how to disinfected surfaces that may be highly-contaminated. Some custodians do better than others, but many just empty the trash, mop the floors, and head on to the next room. Most schools are under-funded for janitorial staff, and yes, they may not be provided with the proper sanitation supplies (or training!). Yes, their job is difficult, but so is the mission of keeping our children well. It is time to bring up the level of cleanliness and sanitation up a notch in our schools
In kindergarten my son had three bouts of strep throat, not to mention the various colds that came along. When we were waiting to be let in one morning, he point out a little girl who had green mucus coming from her nose. All I could think about was that her hands would be touching everything in the class. After he had finished kindergarten, I chose to home school him. In the 6 years that I taught him at home he had maybe two or three colds. Now he is back in school and not even after the first week is in, that he got sick and passed a variation onto me.
I am sure there could be more that the custodians, teachers and children can do to help prevent germs in the classroom, however, no one has even mentioned keeping a sick child home to prevent the spreading of the virus. Not always easy to accomodate with working parents, I understand! But it is a part of the solution as well. Sounds like we all need to work as a team on this one!
I work as a custodian at a junior high/Senior high school building were everything is disinfected and washed every night along with many other things that need to be cleaned. This has come especially important due to the MRSA staff infection stuff going around. I dont think most people understand the position we are in. While Having teachers help out with the cleaning by doing little things here and there sounds like a great idea I dont beleive It will ever happen. Many teachers have started to care less and less it seems and instead of staying to do extra anything often leave ASAP at the end of the day. This could be due in part because the kids have become extremely more violent/disrespectful/distructive in the last couple of years. Also while everyone loves having there stuff clean they dont really want to see to much of us. If you stay in one spot to long you here complaints from school officials the next day. Our school wont higher any decent subs or extra custodians either because to simply put it...it costs more money. As far as girls bathrooms being the cleanest, whoever said that doesnt know what they are talking about. Girls bathrooms are the worst to clean, the stinkiest, nastiest, and messiest bathrooms are girls. I dont care what you think thats just how it is. There is so much that we have to put up and do everyday that no one really understands. O and also just because you dont see something being cleaned at a certain time doesnt mean that the custodian doesnt come back later in the night to finish the job. Its often faster to hit one type of things first then go back through and get something else.
I'm a kindergarten teacher who has asked multiple times for assistance in my class to make sure everything is clean. I get to work an hour early and leave an hour or two late. I have the worst rate of sick kids in the school and have myself been sick (and on antibiotics) at least once a month since the beginning of the year. I try as much as possible to clean everything I can. We also use hand sanitizer as much as possible. I have not received any assistance even with all this. We also were not notified when we had 3 cases of MRSA in our school. There is only so much the teachers and custodians can do. It needs to go to an admistrational level to help get word out to parents and improve coditions at school and therefore home too. We can all do our part, but there is a point when the next higher level needs to step in too.
I am advocating for the rights of children who were forced, as punishment, to clean toilets with bare hands, exposing these children to chemicals and germs. Any factual data that I can take to the school to put a stop to this obvious bad practice?
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