By Lisa Rapaport In the event of another influenza pandemic, closing select schools or even just certain classrooms might limit social costs while slowing down spread of the disease more effectively than a nationwide shutdown, a new study estimates. Out of all the options explored, a nationwide school shutdown appeared to be the least effective response to pandemic influenza because it didn’t curb the rate of new cases more than targeted closures that start with just a classroom, grade level, single school or single county school system, the analysis found. “Our results show that targeted school closures can reduce the overall number of cases in the population, decrease the peak number of cases – which is the moment of maximum stress for the healthcare system during an epidemic – and postpone the epidemic peak – thus gaining time, for example, for producing and delivering a vaccine,” said lead study author Dr. Laura Fumanelli of the Bruno Kessler Foundation in Trento, Italy.
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Targeted school closures might help fight pandemic flu
