School Closure during Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 | CDC EID

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Volume 16, Number 8–August 2010
Dispatch
Household Effects of School Closure during Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, Pennsylvania, USA
Thomas L. Gift, Rakhee S. Palekar, Samir V. Sodha, Charlotte K. Kent, Ryan P. Fagan, W. Roodly Archer, Paul J. Edelson, Tiffany Marchbanks, Achuyt Bhattarai, David Swerdlow, Stephen Ostroff, and Martin I. Meltzer, for the Pennsylvania H1N1 Working Group1

Author affiliations: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (T.L. Gift, S.V. Sodha, C.K. Kent, R.P. Fagan, W.R. Archer, P.J. Edelson, A. Bhattarai, D. Swerdlow, M.I. Meltzer); Pan American Health Organization, Washington, DC, USA (R.S. Palekar); and Pennsylvania Department of Health, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA (T. Marchbanks, S. Ostroff)

Suggested citation for this article

Abstract
To determine the effects of school closure, we surveyed 214 households after a 1-week elementary school closure because of pandemic (H1N1) 2009. Students spent 77% of the closure days at home, 69% of students visited at least 1 other location, and 79% of households reported that adults missed no days of work to watch children.
Some studies have suggested that school-age children are influential in the ongoing transmission of influenza (1,2). Closing schools may potentially reduce the spread of influenza (3,4). In mid-May 2009, an elementary school (kindergarten-4th grade) in a semirural area of Pennsylvania closed for 1 week after an abrupt increase in absenteeism due to influenza-like illness (ILI) and the confirmation of influenza A pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus infection in 1 student. Other schools in the district remained open. From May 26 through June 2, 2009, investigators from the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed households with students at the school by telephone to assess influenza symptoms, childcare arrangements, movements of affected children during the school closure period, and household demographics and socioeconomic status. This study did not address the transmission effects, but assessed the potential disruption to households resulting from school closure.

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School Closure during Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 | CDC EID

Suggested Citation for this Article
Gift TL, Palekar RS, Sodha SV, Kent CK, Fagan RP, Archer WR, et al. Household effects of school closure during pandemic (H1N1) 2009, Pennsylvania, USA. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2010 Aug [date cited]. http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/16/8/1315.htm

DOI: 10.3201/eid1608.091827

1Members of the Pennsylvania H1N1 Working Group are listed at the end of this article.