Schools advised to stagger students seeking medical checks, says Perak health exco

IPOH, September 16 — The Perak government has instructed schools to collaborate with District Health Offices and nearby health facilities before mobilizing a significant number of students for medical examinations, following an outbreak. This guidance emerged after a boarding school in Ipoh dispatched 57 students, all exhibiting Influenza-Like Illness (ILI), to a local healthcare facility simultaneously, despite being cautioned to conduct the screenings in stages.

Datuk A. Sivanesan, Chairman of the Perak Health, Human Resources, Indian Affairs and National Integration Committee, stated that distributing symptomatic students in stages would mitigate congestion at health centers and minimize the likelihood of infection spread. "The affected boarding school has been instructed not to bring large groups of symptomatic students to health facilities all at once if more cases arise," he emphasized in a statement.

Sivanesan disclosed that the Perak Health Department, via the Kinta District Health Office (PKD Kinta), was grappling with an Influenza A cluster at a secondary boarding school in Ipoh, where control measures, screening, and epidemiological investigations were initiated promptly. Upon learning about the incident on September 14 at 12:08 pm, when 57 symptomatic students boarded a bus and arrived at a nearby health clinic without prior notification, Sivanesan revealed that some students lacked identification documents, complicating the clinic's management of patients.

To address the situation, an integrated team from PKD Kinta and the clinic was dispatched to the school around 2 pm on the same day for centralized health screening and assessments. The team consisted of a medical officer, an assistant medical officer, a healthcare assistant, a pharmacist, an infection prevention and control team member, and three surveillance unit members from PKD Kinta.

Despite the school's instruction on September 15 to bring symptomatic students to health facilities in stages to avert overcrowding at the clinic, the institution opted to transport the students via a school bus. The clinic subsequently coordinated with the school to ensure that admissions, screenings, and assessments could proceed systematically.

By 1 pm on September 15, a total of 39 students had been assessed, with all reported to be in stable condition. The assessment concluded with 61 students screened and evaluated, including 46 diagnosed with ILI, 14 with upper respiratory tract infection (URTI), and one with conjunctivitis. Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from six students for laboratory testing, and the results were under surveillance by PKD Kinta to determine subsequent steps.

Sivanesan affirmed that PKD Kinta would persist with epidemiological investigations and monitor new cases among the school community to discern transmission patterns, the count of cases, contacts, and associated risk factors.