FIRST AND second-class children at a Co Roscommon national school, who only got their summer holidays two days ago, had to return to the school yesterday to be given antiviral drugs after one of their classmates tested positive for the swine flu virus.
The young girl who contracted the influenza (H1N1) virus shared a classroom with 28 children at Roxboro National School, about 6km outside Roscommon town. She was last at school on Monday, the school closed on Tuesday, and tests confirmed she had the virus on Wednesday evening.
The pupil is said to be recovering well at home, but when her parents contacted school principal Michael Cleary on Wednesday evening he, together with the HSE, arranged for the parents of all 130 students at the school to be briefed on the situation at a meeting in the school yesterday.
At that meeting, Dr Diarmuid O’Donovan, director of public health for HSE West, outlined the global swine flu situation and answered questions.
The Roscommon case is understood to be one of the eight new cases of swine flu identified in the State on Tuesday. Two further cases were confirmed yesterday, bringing the total number to 51.