Texas officials cancel high school sporting events because of Swine Flu Outbreak
BREAKING NEWS
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Texas officials postponed all public high school athletic and academic competitions on Wednesday until May 11 because of the swine flu outbreak.
The move suspends the baseball and softball seasons and eliminates the regional track championships that were to start Friday, said Charles Breithaupt, executive director of the University Interscholastic League. He said league officials acted on the recommendation of public health officials.
"The health and safety of our student activity participants is of the utmost importance," Breithaupt said. "Taking every possible precaution to prevent the further spreading of this disease is an important contribution to the welfare of our great state, and altering the schedule of our events is a way to keep our participants safe."
School officials say 53,000 students are out of school due to concern over the virus, and dozens of schools were closed to be sanitized.
The state golf and tennis championships are scheduled to begin May 11.
The state track meet, one of the largest high school track and field competitions in the country, has been extended from its normal two days to three and is scheduled for May 12-14.
All UIL academic competitions, including a state meet that was to begin May 7, were also postponed and will be rescheduled later.
With 16 confirmed cases of swine flue in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry announced a disaster declaration Wednesday for the entire state. The declaration will allow officials to begin emergency protective measures and seek reimbursement from the federal government.
The CIF-SS office has sent out a memo to all member schools to take precautions during the Swine Flu alert: "We're not requiring anything," said Thomas Simmons, CIF-SS director of communications. "We just sent out a memo for the schools to take precautions, giving some information on what to do to stay healthy."
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Melendez worked as a correspondent for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune for three years and later landed a job as a freelance writer at the Los Angeles Times before accepting an offer at The Orange County Register covering high schools. Melendez covered Major League Soccer at The Register for three years before being promoted to report on the Lakers, Angels and Dodgers for the Web. Melendez also worked for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Fresno Bee, Oakland Tribune and The Boston Globe. E-mail opinions, suggestions and tips to miguel.melendez@sgvn.com. |
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I am a 48-year-old female. I was diagnosed with Type B influenza yesterday. I received the flu shot in November of this year. I also had Type B influenza in February of this year. On Friday, Dec. 5, 2008, I started with what I thought was a cold or allergy symptoms: nasal congestion, slight sore throat, and some coughing. I went to my husband's Christmas party and probably infected several people unknowingly. Saturday morning, I felt really bad. I had body aches, a low-grade fever of 100, a sore throat, coughs, facial pain, slight nausea, and no appetite. I stayed in bed all day. Sunday morning, I was determined to go to church, so I took some Sinus Tylenol and Motrin and went. Considering I am a medical assistant, you would think I would know better. My low-grade fever returned as the Motrin wore out. Monday morning, I went to the medical office I work at and was swabbed for the flu. Yep: I was Type B positive. I also have a sinus infection, so I was prescribed Omnicef. Today, I still have a lot of nasal congestion, hoarseness, coughing, but I feel "slightly" better. I was told to stay out of work for a week, but we’ll see how that goes.
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While it is sometimes good to be cautious, everytime something like this hits the news, I think of Y2K - a lot of "consultants" made a lot of money scaring us into thinking the world would end on January 1, 2000.
We put things on TV and look what happens...we are a bunch of lemmings. We see Amber alerts - and we think that that every kid in America is being abuducted. We see flu and we think everyone is going to die from it. We see soldier deaths and we think that they are all dying - -
Yet, abductions are down from 30 years ago, 39,000 people die from the flu each year, and more soldiers died in WWII and not even close to Vietnam - - boy, the world was a better place prior to 24 hour media -
we need to see everything in perspective. There are approximately 399,999,900 people in America who have no signs of the Swine Flu
Chicken Little told me the sky is going to fall soon so I think I'll stay home...please, I can see some concern about gathering hundreds of athletes from across the state for a track meet, but canceling games? Are all schools closed (public)? What about the private schools? All bet they have the vaccine and can continue with their season's. CIF- stand down on this one. WOW!