Coolbaugh Elementary takes precautions as 1 in 3 kids falls ill

Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania - About 200 sick students stayed home or left Coolbaugh Elementary Center on Friday complaining of vomiting.

It is not yet clear what the cause of the widespread illness was, but it afflicted one out of three students at the 603-pupil school. About half of the sick stayed home, and the other half were sent home after getting sick in school.

"We're doing everything we can," said Wendy Frable, Pocono Mountain School District's director of public information.

The district sought the help of the Pennsylvania Department of Health in responding. It also received guidance from the Department of Environmental Protection as it tested its drinking water.

"We don't think it has anything to do with the water, but we're talking to the DEP to see what we should do," Frable said.

Food poisoning also seems an unlikely cause, the district said.

The children who became sick did not all eat the same thing for lunch, and not everyone who ate the lunches served in the school became sick, the district said in a statement it sent home and posted on its Web site.

Another possibility, one raised by the Department of Health, is that a norovirus or stomach flu has run through the school, though it's still too soon to tell.

A norovirus is highly contagious and can spread easily from person to person, through both stool and vomit. Symptoms include nausea, repeated vomiting and diarrhea.

No antiviral medication, vaccine or antibiotic exists to treat it. Instead, a norovirus usually runs its course in one or two days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Doctors typically recommend drinking fluids so that sick patients can stay hydrated.

But the presence of a norovirus in the school has not been established. It can only be confirmed by testing a stool sample of an afflicted person.

The number of sick students Friday was far higher than the 25 who reported absent Thursday. Frable said that "not a lot" of employees called in sick Friday, which adds to the puzzle. Many teachers and staff drink the same water and eat the same food as the students.

"We really would like to know the cause, but we may never know," Frable said. "We're just trying to rule things out."

The district has staffed the building with extra custodians to sanitize all tabletops and surfaces in the cafeteria. Its food vendor, Chartwells, switched to disposable paper trays and served milk from a different batch.

The district also checked its refrigerators and freezers and found them to be in working order. Extra staff will sanitize the building today.

The school will be open Monday. The district recommends that sick students stay home, even if they feel a little bit better, to ensure they are fully recovered.