Health

Respiratory illnesses can spread easily and can make people very sick, especially kids. 

Updated CDC Guidance
In March 2024, the CDC released updated recommendations for when to stay home and when to go back to activities after respiratory illnesses including Covid-19, influenza and RSV. The updated guidance states that individuals should stay home and away from others if they have respiratory virus symptoms that include fever, chills, fatigue, cough, runny nose, and headache. Individuals can go back to normal activities when symptoms are getting better overall and they have been fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication.

This guidance aligns with public health advice already in place for the flu and other respiratory illnesses. Please be aware the 5-day isolation period for individuals who test positive for Covid is no longer part of the guidance. As is the case for other illnesses, adults/students may return to work/school when they feel better and are fever-free for 24 hours without fever-reducing medication.

Prevention

Flu vaccine is the best protection against the flu. It is recommended every year for everyone 6 months and older. Get the flu vaccine for you and your children every year! The vaccine helps make flu sickness milder or prevents it all together. Getting the vaccine early in the fall means you and your children will be protected when flu season starts.

Covid vaccine information

Don’t spread illness!

If your child gets a respiratory illness:

• Wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
• If soap and water aren’t handy, use an alcohol-based hand rub.
• Cough or sneeze into a tissue or your elbow, not your hands. Put used tissues in the trash.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth. That’s how germs spread.
• Stay away from people who are sick.
• Your child will need plenty of rest and lots of fluids.
• Keep your child home from school.
• If you are worried about your child, call their health care provider.
• Students may return to school when they feel better and are fever-free for 24 hours without fever-reducing medication.

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Controlling Ticks
DEET, showers, and tick checks can stop ticks. Reduce your chances of getting a tickborne disease by using repellents, checking for ticks, and showering after being outdoors. If you have a tick bite followed by a fever or rash, seek medical attention. Gardening, camping, hiking, and playing outdoors – when enjoying these activities, don't forget to take steps to prevent bites from ticks that share the outdoors. Ticks can infect humans with bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can cause serious illness.

Before you go outdoors, know where to expect ticks. Ticks live in moist and humid environments, particularly in or near wooded or grassy areas. You may come into contact with ticks during outdoor activities around your home or when walking through leaf litter or near shrubs. Always walk in the center of trails in order to avoid contact with ticks. Products containing permethrin kill ticks. Permethrin can be used to treat boots, clothing and camping gear and remain protective through several washings. Use a repellent with DEET on skin. Repellents containing 20% or more DEET (N, N-diethyl-m-toluamide) can protect up to several hours. Always follow product instructions. Parents should apply this product to their children, avoiding the hands, eyes, and mouth.

After you come indoors, check your clothing for ticks. Ticks may be carried into the house on clothing. Any ticks that are found should be removed. Tumble dry clothes in a dryer on high heat for 10 minutes to kill ticks on dry clothing after you come indoors. If the clothes are damp, additional time may be needed. If the clothes require washing first, hot water is recommended. Cold and medium temperature water will not kill ticks effectively. Shower soon after being outdoors. Showering within two hours of coming indoors has been shown to reduce your risk of getting Lyme disease. Showering may help wash off unattached ticks and it is a good opportunity to do a tick check. Check your body for ticks after being outdoors. Conduct a full body check upon return from potentially tick-infested areas, which even includes your back yard. Use a hand-held or full-length mirror to view all parts of your body. Check these parts of your body and your child's body for ticks:

• Under the arms
• In and around the ears
• Inside belly button
• Back of the knees
• In and around the hair
• Between the legs
• Around the waist

If you find an attached tick, remove the attached tick as soon as you notice it by grasping with tweezers, as close to the skin as possible, and pulling it straight out. Watch for signs of illness such as rash or fever in the days and weeks following the bite, and see a health care provider if these develop. Your risk of acquiring a tick-borne illness depends on many factors, including where you live, what type of tick bit you, and how long the tick was attached. If you become ill after a tick bite, see a health care provider.

Reduce ticks in your yard by modifying your landscape to create Regularly remove leaf litter and clear tall grasses and brush around homes, and place wood chips or gravel between lawns and wooded areas to keep ticks away from recreational areas, and keep play areas and playground equipment away from away from shrubs, bushes, and other vegetation. Consider using a chemical control agent. Effective tick control chemicals are available for use by the homeowner, or they can be applied by a professional pest control expert, and even limited applications can greatly reduce the number of ticks. A single springtime application of acaricide can reduce the population of ticks that cause Lyme disease by 68–100%. Discourage deer. Removing plants that attract deer and constructing physical barriers may help discourage deer from entering your yard and bringing ticks with them.

Use tick control products to prevent family pets from bringing ticks into the home. Tick collars, sprays, shampoos, or “top spot” medications should be used regularly to protect your animals and your family from ticks. Consult your veterinarian and be sure to use these products according to the package instructions. 

Content source: National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases

Head lice (pediculosis) are parasitic insects that can be found on the head, eyebrows, and eyelashes of people. Head lice feed on human blood several times a day and live close to the human scalp. They are crawling insects and cannot jump, hop, or fly. The primary way that head lice spread is from prolonged direct head-to-head contact. Indirect spread through contact with personal belongings of an infested individual (combs, brushes, hats, sport helmets) is much less likely to occur. 

Head lice can be a nuisance but they cause no medical harm and can be effectively treated. The Department of Health does not track cases of head lice because lice do not carry disease. Personal hygiene or cleanliness has nothing to do with getting head lice. Head lice typically is spread unknowingly between family members and friends by having close contact at home, sleepovers or camps. It is not usually spread in the school classroom.

Amherst CSD is committed to providing a healthy school environment for all students and employees.  The protocol for head lice management in our schools is guided by the current recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the National Association for School Nurses (NASN):

• Parents should report the presence or suspicion of head lice on their child to the school nurse.
• If a student is found to have lice at school, a phone call will be made to the parent instructing them to treat their child/children and then bring them to school the next morning to be checked by the School Nurse and will be re-admitted following successful treatment. 
• If a parent is unable to be reached, a letter will be sent home with the student explaining the situation.
• Parents should follow the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to prevent re-infestation in the home.
• Parents are asked to accompany the student back to school so they are present when the nurse inspects the child’s head for the first time after treatment and can discuss any concerns in person. 

“No-Nit” policies and excluding children from school is not only not necessary, it is not effective in preventing or managing head lice per the American Association of Pediatrics, National Association of School Nurses, and the Centers of Disease Control. There has also been no medical reason shown to exclude students from school. School exclusion can have an effect on a child’s education, as each year countless children miss school repeatedly due to head lice. 

Amherst CSD DOES NOT have a “No-Nit” policy. The AAP and NASN both advise against whole classroom screening, mandatory exclusion for nits or live lice, and broad notification to others that a case of head lice has been found. It has long been the belief that routine classroom head checks minimize or prevent the spread of lice. This is simply not true and is not recommended by the American Association of Pediatrics. Head checks have been found to take students away from learning activities and misidentification can be common. This practice also causes the student and family unneeded embarrassment and unfair stigmatizing. Families provide the most effective screening by checking their children regularly at home. Learn more by reading the No-Panic Guide to Head Lice Treatment (Johns Hopkins Medicine).

The school nurse will check the heads of all Amherst CSD siblings, symptomatic students in the classroom and those individuals identified as having direct head-to-head contact with the infested child such as close friends or attendees of recent sleepovers.

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Erie County Commissioner of Health 9/12/19 Correspondence to School Superintendents PDF

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CDC - e-Cigarettes and Youth - What Parents Need to Know PDF

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E Cigarettes Shaped Like USB Flash Drives:  Information for Parents, Educators, and Health Care Providers (CDC) PDF

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Know the Risks- E-Cigarettes & Young People (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) Website

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