Dubai schools issue influenza guidelines

As flu cases surge in the UAE, Dubai schools have issued comprehensive guidelines urging parents to keep sick children at home and only send them back after being symptom-free for 24 hours without medication.

Schools across the emirate are reinforcing preventive measures and asking families to vaccinate their children against flu, which typically peaks during autumn and winter months.

In the UAE, the flu season is between September and March, and the health authorities have urged residents, especially those at high risk, to get vaccinated with the latest vaccine that provides protection against the prevailing flu viruses.

Return-to-school policy

Schools advised parents to keep children at home if they are unwell. Schools’ management stressed that students should return to school only when they have been symptom-free for at least 24 hours without the use of medications.

Another school in its guideline told parents to keep their child at home if they develop symptoms including fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, general malaise or feeling of fatigue or muscle ache, frequent dry or wet cough, and runny or blocked nose.

Vaccination and hygiene

The influenza vaccine is provided at all government primary healthcare centres and private healthcare providers in Dubai.

Schools recommend washing hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, covering coughs and sneezes with tissue or by coughing into the inside of the elbow, avoiding touching the eyes, nose or mouth immediately after touching contaminated surfaces, and avoiding close contact with sick people.

If a child is diagnosed with influenza, parents must provide the school doctor or nurse with the clinic or hospital case report and laboratory results if available.

Schools are also reassured parents that illness-related absences will not drawback students. Teachers provide catch-up work and pastoral staff check in as needed.