Swine flu leaves Justin-Siena students quarantined in Ecuador

By JENNIFER HUFFMAN
Register Business Writer

Fifteen Justin-Siena High School students among 22 high school students traveling abroad were quarantined in Ecuador this week after one of the group tested positive for swine flu. The person who tested positive for the H1N1 virus is a male Novato High School student.

The Justin-Siena students and seven Novato High students left the U.S. on June 18 for a 10-day educational tour of Peru and the Galapagos Islands. They visited Machu Picchu and finished other parts of their itinerary before arriving in Quito, Ecuador, on Monday, where teachers learned the Novato student had developed a fever.

“The teachers notified a doctor and that student was removed from the group,” said Justin-Siena High President Robert Jordan. The Novato High student entered a Quito hospital for treatment. The Ecuadorian government subsequently quarantined the rest of the group in their hotel.

Jordan said the Novato High student left the hospital and returned to the hotel on Thursday.

According to Napa County Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith, two relatives of a student on the trip contacted her office. The relatives, who are physicians, told Smith that three of the students in Quito had developed fevers. Two have since tested negative for swine flu.

“That makes the situation a little more optimistic,” said Smith.

At the same time, she said, “There is no way to know if what these (three students with fevers) have is the seasonal influenza, or the H1N1, which we know is circulating down there. It could be some other respiratory illness.”

It is the beginning of the flu season in the southern hemisphere, Smith said.

Early Thursday, Smith said the Ecuadorian government required the group stay in Quito until all its members were without fever for 48 hours. But by Thursday evening, Novato High School Principal Rey Mayoral said the U.S. Embassy had intervened and persuaded Ecuadorian authorities to release 19 of the students. They should be home by Saturday, said Mayoral.

A Novato high teacher chaperone will remain in Quito with the three students and a tour guide from trip organizer NETC Educational Travel. “They should be home by Sunday or Tuesday at the latest,” Mayoral said. As of Thursday night, the principal did not know which of the two schools the three remaining and 19 released students attend.

Mayoral said he did not know the name of the student with swine flu. The trip is not a school-sponsored event, noted the principal.

“Regardless of where they are at, their safety is a concern to us,” Mayoral said. “I want to make sure the kids and my teacher are doing well and, of course, the same for Justin-Siena kids and teachers,” he said.   

Meanwhile, the physician-relatives of the one student were scheduled to travel to Quito to personally deliver Tamiflu, a prescription flu drug, to the students. Tamiflu has been used to treat the H1N1 virus.  

“I agree that those kids having Tamiflu is a good idea,” Smith said. “At the very least, they will have two more physicians down there with the kids if they get sick.”

Representatives of NETC Educational Travel, which has offices in San Francisco and Boston, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Even though the group missed the Galapagos Island tour, the mood of the students was “fairly good,” Jordan said.

“They’re getting antsy because they’ve been in the hotel since Monday. But I expect they are anxious to get home and I’m sure their families are anxious to see them, as are we.”

“I’m very proud of our students who have been very patient and supportive of each other in the midst of this unexpected experience,” Jordan said. “I am anxious to visit with our students on their return home to hear first-hand about their trip which became a whole new learning experience unto itself; one that they and we certainly did not anticipate.”

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