WFISD Flu Fight - Newschannel 6 Now | Wichita Falls, TX

 Wichita Falls, TX - Flu cases continue to spike across the country and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the virus could linger around a little longer this season.          

Newschannel 6 reached out to the Wichita Falls I.S.D. to see how it's schools are fighting the flu.

WFISD has more than 14,000 students and said making sure each student remains flu-free is a challenge. 

Debi Mills, a registered nurse, Health Care Coordinator at WFISD said with the cooperation of parents and teachers they can keep kids healthy and in the classroom. 

"We really encourage parents to keep their student home if they are sick and our staff as well," said Mills. "We don't wan't any of the staff coming to school if they are sick."

Mills said they strongly suggest parents to keep their kids at home for 24 hours if they have fever and once the child's fever is broken and they stopped taking fever medication they can return to school. The district said this protocol is in place to ensure the student sick returns when healthy and also protects others in the classroom.

At peak WFISD said it sent about 100 students home that were either sick with the flu or showing flu-like symptoms. 

"Flu numbers have decreased dramatically since we came back from Christmas break," said Mills. "We saw many more students with the flu or flu-like symptoms before."

The week before students went on Christmas break the district recorded more than 334 cases of the flu and the week after students returned it reported 31 cases. Mills hopes this trend continues downward and the district keeps as many of its students in the classroom. 

Jimmie Johnson, Newschannel 6