Sanitizing is going to be so prevalent at diocesan Catholic schools this fall that administrators might as well make it an extracurricular activity. Anything to keep the Influenza A virus, aka H1N1 or the swine flu, at bay.

The virus is expected to make a resurgence this fall, according to health care experts, and local schools hope to avoid the spread of germs by following guidelines set forth by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

As of early August, the CDC recommends that students should stay home when sick; that ill students and staff be separated from those who are healthy; that hands be washed frequently and thoroughly; that schools be routinely cleaned; that students or faculty with flu-like symptoms speak to a health care provider as soon as possible; and that schools consider dismissal in order to protect students in high-risk communities.

Sister Bernadette McManigal, superintendent of schools, said that all diocesan schools will “follow the directions of the CDC or the Virginia Health Department.

“We are asking people to disinfect desks, chairs and doorknobs, (and) banisters on a regular basis just to keep germs down,” she said. In addition to good hygiene, schools were asked to maintain open lines of communication between teachers, principals and the Schools Office if a case of H1N1 is discovered, and for those open lines also to exist between schools and parents.

Most schools are sending letters to parents informing them of the precautionary measures being taken on site and encouraging them to keep children with flu-like symptoms at home.

Bobby Terry, principal of Epiphany School in Culpeper, said that the guidelines put in place during the spring H1N1 scare would carry over into the fall semester.

“We were washing hands as much as possible, sanitizing, including stairway banisters and doorknobs, and just being as clean and ready to go as we could be,” she said. “I think everyone having focused on it last year knows what to expect this year as far as being prepared.”

Some things, however, have changed since the spring. For example, the CDC no longer recommends the closing of schools if an H1N1 case is identified. Students with flu-like symptoms — fever, cough and sore throat — should be kept home for only 24 hours after symptoms abate, instead of the previously declared seven days. And, according to the Virginia Health Department, testing for the H1N1 virus is only being conducted on a limited basis.

In order to make sure all public and private schools are on the same page, private school administrators in Fairfax County have been invited to two information sessions Aug. 27 with the Fairfax County Health Department.

According to Esther Walker, assistant director of patient care services, the health department has a close relationship with Fairfax County Public Schools and wants to extend the same information and support to non-public schools in the county.

“We want to provide the same resources to the private schools,” Walker said. “We want to make sure everybody has the latest recommendations and that we’re there to answer their questions and support them.”

The meetings will cover CDC guidelines and make sure that administrators are aware of the latest changes. They’ll look at CDC-identified “high risk groups” to determine primary candidates for receiving the H1N1 vaccine — different from the seasonal flu vaccine.

According to the CDC, all people aged six months to 24 years are recommended to receive the vaccine because of the “close contact” among children in schools and day cares.

Though no official timeline has been released regarding availability of the H1N1 vaccine, Walker estimated that mid-October seemed realistic, with the seasonal flu vaccine released before that. Austin Poole, principal of Our Lady of Good Counsel School in Vienna, said that he plans to attend one of Thursday’s health department sessions. He also is working with the cleaning crew to keep the school building as sanitary as possible.

“We’re going to try and make sure that all the preventative methods are going to help us,” Poole said.

He added that the faculty will be looking into a “just in case” scenario of how to continue education if schools should have to close down.

Any decision to shut a school down would be a joint decision between school administration and the superintendent, Sister Bernadette said. A school is likely to close only if it doesn’t have enough healthy personnel to keep it open.

Because of large geographic span of diocesan schools, many decisions will be handled on a case-by-case basis. “Our diocesan schools are so spread out that a plan for (Arlington) is not going to fit Fredericksburg, so we want to adapt and work with individual places that will have to react to the situations as they occur in their specific locations,” Sister Bernadette said. “We’re not as centralized as the local schools are. Their schools are all in one county, we’re not.”

Sister Bernadette said there is likely to be an increase in worry this fall from parents regarding the flu, but that the schools office is staying ahead of the game as much as possible.

“It behooves us to do as much preparation as we can,” she said. “It’s hard to deal with unknowns.”