The H1N1 flu is apparently taking a toll on student numbers in the Staples Motley School District.

Higher than normal absentee numbers were reported this week in three Staples Motley school buildings, with up to five percent of the students apparently suffering from flu like symptoms.

Cheryl Mashuga, school district nurse, said "We definitely have flu like illness in the high school." She also said the Staples Motley High School and Motley Elementary had about five percent out last Friday, with the Motley Staples Middle school added to that list on Monday.

On the positive side, as of Tuesday of this week, the school nurse said attendance at both Staples Elementary and at Sacred Heart Area School appeared to be close to normal.

Mashuga said normal absentee rate would be about two or three percent or even less. Those rates, however, would be appropriate before the H1N1 flu became a world wide epidemic.

Students are being separated from the rest of the student body and sent home when they begin showing symptoms such as sore throat, a fever over 100 and coughing, Mashuga said.

While she referred to the school cases as 'influenza like illness" Jon Willgohs, Lakewood Health System clinical director, said the current cases being seen around Minnesota are

almost 99 percent H1N1.

The hospital has done a 'rapid test' on 30 patients

seen this fall, Willgohs said, with eight of those returned as positive. He cautioned that is not a confirmed test result that the patient has H1N1, but rather it is saying the patient has influenza. "We cannot determine (from that test) whether it is seasonal or H1N1 flu," Willgohs said, adding, "Just that it is flu. Around the state, he said 99 percent of flu cases being reported are believed to be H1N1."

Just Monday the Minnesota Department of Health reported that a child from Hennepin County died recently from complications due to infection with H1N1 flu virus. That brings to seven the total number of deaths due to flu in Minnesota this year, four of them this fall.

The first doses of vaccine for the H1N1 flu are just now becoming available. Willgohs said the Lakewood Health System has received just 100 doses, which will only cover about one-third of their medical staff. He said emergency room staff and other front line staff will receive these first immunizations.

Additional doses of H1N1 vaccine are expected later this fall. Health officials urge people to get vaccinated to protect themselves from the H1N1 virus.

Individuals at high risk who should definitely get vaccinated include:

o Pregnant women

o People who live with or care for children younger than six months old.

o Health care and emergency medical services personnel

o People between the ages of six months and 24 years old

o People 25 to 64 years of age who are at higher risk for the 2009 H12N1 because of chronic health disorders or compromised immune systems.

Emergency warning signs of H1N1 flu (Signs patient needs urgent care) include:

For Children

1. Fast breathing or diffi culty breathing

2. Bluish appearance of skin

3. Not drinking water or fluids

4.Not waking up or not interacting normally

5. Being fussy, not eating

6 . F lu symptoms improve but return with fever and worse cough

7. Fever with rash.

For Adults

1. Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath

2. Pain/pressure in chest or abdomen

3. Sudden dizziness

4. Confusion

5. Severe or persistent vomiting

6. Bluish color

7. Flu like symptoms improve, but return with fever and worse cough

8. Fever with rash