H1N1 hits area schools, parents fearful

Fears that the H-1-N-1 virus is spreading in schools has some parents alarmed.

This week thousand of parents in Agawam came home to find a message from the district's superintendent, Dr. Mary Czajkowski.

The automated message was part of the districts efforts to keep parents informed of any developments with the H1N1 virus.

In the past week, there have been confirmed cases of the swine flu at both the Robinson Park School and Agawam Middle School.

Dr. Czajkowski told 22News, “They are really encouraging schools to remain open and encouraging parents to keep their children home as well as staff we're sending the same message to staff."

Every school district has a different way of letting parents know about swine flu in their child's school.

Some send letters home with students others post information online, but it's getting harder for school districts to confirm cases of swine flu in their schools."

"Some hospitals are not testing and so therefore they're just treating it as if it were the H1N1 flu and I'm basically monitoring confirmed as well as unconfirmed cases by school," said Dr. Czajkowski.

State health officials say they're working under the assumption that the H1N1 virus is responsible for most cases of flu-like illnesses because there's no evidence that the seasonal flu has arrived in Massachusetts yet.