EU flu panel says schools should stay open

BRUSSELS - EU experts have said there is no need to stop children going back to school in September to prevent the spread of swine flu.

"There is presently no need to enact pre-emptive mass school closures," the EU's Health Security Committee said in a statement on Thursday (13 August).

It added that schools or classes should be shut down on a case-by-case basis following the detection of an outbreak, however.

"The approach to locally close schools reactively upon infection being found among students, may be beneficial to delay the transmission of the virus," the statement said.

The special committee - made up of European Commission and EU member state health officials - was formed in 2001 to combat the threat of biological terrorism following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US.

The EU advice cited "scientific evidence" from the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) saying that the benefits of mass school closures would be "very uncertain."

The EU is partly concered about the economic impact of keeping millions of parents out of work to look after children.

"Any [health] benefits, however substantial, must be weighed against the potential high economic and social costs of proactively closing schools," the ECDC said.

The EU advice is an attempt to co-ordinate policy in an area where member states have exclusive national authority.

Concerned parents have received mixed messages in recent weeks.

French health minister Luc Chatel on Wednesday told Le Figaro that the country would "close all of the schools in France" if there is a severe outbreak. French authorities plan to broadcast lessons on TV and on the internet in the worst case scenario.

The UK on 31 July advised EU colleagues to delay the start of the school year until the end of September. "The [economic] disadvantages would be outweighed by the children's lives saved," it said in a position paper obtained by AFP.

It has since shifted focus to putting in place by October a mass innoculation scheme for schoolchildren.

Sweden and Greece have begun vaccinating their entire populations. Belgian municipal authorities have asked cemeteries to dig extra graves. But Denmark is taking a hands off approach, with Danish doctors saying swine flu is not much different to normal flu.

Stay home and wear masks

The EU's Health Security Committee also issued fresh advice to travellers showing flu-like symptoms.

People are advised to delay their trips and stay at home or in their hotel room. They should go outside only to seek medical assistance and should wear protective face masks.

EU citizens are permitted to travel no matter how sick they look under article 18 of the EU treaty on freedom of movement however, which overrides any national measures.

The A(H1N1) virus has to date killed 55 people in the EU, 40 of whom in the UK and 10 in Spain. People have also died in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and Hungary.

The outbreak - classified as a "pandemic" by the UN - has killed 1,462 people worldwide.