durhamregion.com | This Week | Thursday, November 17, 2022 | 6 HORSE AND WAGON RIDES A VISIT FROM SANTA TREE LIGHTING | LOCAL ENTERTAINMENT CRAFTS, TREATS AND ACTIVITIES FOOD VENDORS | WHITBY FARMERS' MARKET AND MUCH MORE Discover the magic of small-town Christmas traditions and holiday activities. Free Admission. Sponsored by: Friday, November 25 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Grass Park, 41 Baldwin Street, Downtown Brooklin For the latest updates visit, whitby.ca/ChristmasInTheVillage doctors gave Nora intravenous antibiotics for two days "trying to flush as much out of her system as they could." Though Nora felt better for a few days, Rennie Windsor said she got sick again right after she finished the antibiotics. "She's just miserable and coughing and has fever again. It started again with my son Knox (who got sick three days into the school year back in September), my husband, her and then me. It's been awful; we're so exhausted. It's been nine weeks of this. I worry about what the rest of the winter's going to be like if we're just in November at this point." Illness is showing up in the wider community, where school absences have shot way beyond normal lately. At the Durham District School Board on Wednesday, Nov. 9, there were 7,402 students reported absent from school. That compares with 1,688 absences at the school board on Sept. 12. Pierre Elliott Trudeau Public School in Oshawa had the highest number of absences, with 130 students Nov. 9, and the highest percentage at 16.6 per cent of all students absent. At the Durham Catholic District School Board, the overall average rate of school absence was reported at 13.68 per cent across elementary and secondary schools combined on Nov. 9. That's a jump from the recorded rate of 10.26 per cent on Nov. 8. The latest information from the Durham Region Health flu tracker indicates 57 of 120 recorded cases of influenza A in Durham region are children between zero and nine years of age. A further 25 cases are from the 11 to 24 years of age group. The region's health department says the assessment of flu activity is high. The COVID-19 positivity rate is edging up as well, from 8.5 per cent on Sept. 11 to 10.6 per cent on Oct. 30. Another major issue for parents is the lack or even total absence of children's pain medication on pharmacy shelves. Supply chain issues are receiving a large part of the blame but the lack of medication has existed for months. Lakeridge Health has indicated some local pharmacists will "compound" children's medication, if requested. Some pharmacists may require a doctor's prescription to do the compounding, so parents are requested to call ahead first. Windsor Rennie had some children's Tylenol when her kids first got sick but quickly ran out. "We were fortunate we had family in the U.S. coming up and they were able to bring Tylenol up from the States. We had friends in Toronto going to different pharmacies because we weren't having any luck around here. We ran out of Advil last week, and we had someone in the States pick us up some as well." Others aren't so lucky. They've faced empty store shelves, asked for help from friends and relatives and scrambled to find whatever they can to ease their child's pain. Relief could be on the way. Reports indicate one of the reasons children's pain medications may not be available is the requirement by Health Canada that they include bilingual labelling. Health Canada has indicated it will waive bilingual labelling rules to allow importation of children's pain medication from the U.S. and Australia to hospitals first. The hope is enough medication will find its way to local pharmacies before the flu, RSV and COVID-19 season gets worse. So what can parents do in the meantime? The advice from doctors may sound familiar after two-and-a-half years of COVID-19 pandemic life, but it still rings true for professionals trusted with keeping people safe. Dr. Rose Zacharias, president of the Ontario Medical Association, which represents Ontario's 43,000 physicians, said in a news conference on Nov. 8: "Ontario's doctors are urging the public to get vaccinated for the flu and to also get their COVID-19 booster shots. We are already seeing an early start to the flu season and a resurgence of viral disease in children." Dr. Vinita Dubey, Toronto's associate medical officer of health, added: "Respiratory viruses can spread very easily. Things we can do to prevent infection include getting vaccinated, wearing a mask especially in indoor settings, especially in poor ventilation. Masks can protect us and others from the spread of respiratory viruses. Stay home if you are sick. Stay outdoors as much as we can, wash hands often and keep surfaces clean." As to whether a full public or school mask mandate will return, that's up to the province. Durham Region's health department said it's deferring to "provincial direction regarding any mask mandates in schools." STORY BEHIND THE STORY: With school absences spiking and childhood ER visits in Durham skyrocketing, we wanted to find out what was triggering the sudden rise in illness among young people in Durham region over the past month. NEWS Continued from page 4 DOCTORS URGE PUBLIC TO GET FLU SHOT, COVID BOOSTER SHOTS SCAN THE CODE to read more Durham news online.