The Lancet Infectious Diseases: Closure of schools during an influenza pandemic

In response to WHO raising the influenza pandemic alert level from phase five to phase six, health officials around the world are carefully reviewing pandemic mitigation protocols.

School closure (also called class dismissal in North America) is a non-pharmaceutical intervention that is commonly suggested for mitigating influenza pandemics.

Health officials taking the decision to close schools must weigh the potential health benefits of reducing transmission and thus case numbers against high economic and social costs, difficult ethical issues, and the possible disruption of key services such as health care.

Also, if schools are expected to close as a deliberate policy option, or just because of high levels of staff absenteeism, it is important to plan to mitigate the negative features of closure. In this context, there is still debate about if, when, and how school closure policy should be used.

The Lancet published a Review, in which a multidisciplinary and holistic perspective and review the multiple aspects of school closure as a public health policy is taken. Implications for the mitigation of the swine-origin influenza A H1N1 pandemic are also discussed.

The Lancet Infectious Diseases: Closure of schools during an influenza pandemic

AFP: Stay away from Mecca over swine flu, pilgrims warned

Egypt has become the latest country to warn vulnerable Muslims against pilgrimage to Mecca, after an Egyptian woman back from Saudi Arabia became the first swine flu death in the Middle East and Africa.

Egypt's health ministry 'has warned the elderly, pregnant women, children and those suffering from chronic illness not to perform the hajj or omra pilgrimages,' the official MENA news agency reported late Monday.

As well as the annual hajj, which all Muslims are required to make once in a lifetime if they have the means, the faithful can also make a lesser pilgrimage to the holy places, known as omra, at any time of the year.

Upwards of two million people are expected in Saudi Arabia over the next five months on pilgrimages to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina in the west of the kingdom.

The ministry 'has asked them to delay taking part so that they are not exposed to the risks... of swine flu,' MENA quoted health ministry official Amr Qandil as saying.

The warning came ahead of a meeting of Arab health ministers in Cairo on Wednesday to coordinate arrangements and precautions to be taken during the pilgrimage season.

Egypt on Sunday reported its first death linked to swine flu after a 25-year-old woman returning from a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia died in hospital.

AFP: Stay away from Mecca over swine flu, pilgrims warned